


Do you honestly think that’s dark enough?

by DmitriMolotov



Category: Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter RPF, Rooster Teeth/Achievement Hunter/Funhaus RPF
Genre: Blood and Gore, Character Death, Gen, Horror, Humor, Psychological Horror, Supernatural Elements
Language: English
Status: Completed
Published: 2017-10-01
Updated: 2017-11-04
Packaged: 2019-01-07 21:52:29
Rating: Mature
Warnings: Graphic Depictions Of Violence, Major Character Death
Chapters: 31
Words: 25,551
Publisher: archiveofourown.org
Story URL: https://archiveofourown.org/works/12241314
Author URL: https://archiveofourown.org/users/DmitriMolotov/pseuds/DmitriMolotov
Summary: I mean, it's content, right?31 short stories of Achievement Hunter, horror, humor, frights and gore.A collection for theFYRTFF Scarefest Challenge 2017.





	1. Revenge

**Author's Note:**

> Tags will be updated as works are added and relevant warnings will be in chapter summaries.

Geoff awoke with a start to someone looming over him as zip ties fastened his wrists tightly to the bedframe. To be honest, he wasn’t entirely surprised. The Family reunion was bound to be full of shenanigans after all. In fact, it was more surprising that nothing had happened the first night. But he wasn’t expecting the face that turned into view, hair wild and dishevelled, some kind of black paint roughly smeared around his eyes.

“ _Ryan?_ What the fuck?”

“Surprised to see me, Geoff?”

Geoff blinked a few times, groggily, “I thought you went home this morning? What is this?”

Ryan was splattered in what looked like… oh god was that _blood?_ A manic gleam in his eyes and a sick, crooked grin on his face. He cocked his head sideways. _Fucking creepy._

“What’s the matter, Geoff?”

“Uhhh… I’m tied to the fucking bed for fuckin’ starters,” Geoff’s eyes scanned the room for cameras; Trevor or Gavin should be lurking about somewhere with a camera for sure. “I’ve told you before, I’m not into that, Ryan …at least not with _you_ …” He joked for the cameras, but there was no one in the room but Ryan. The GoPro he had set up in his room for this very reason wasn’t where he’d left it either. He couldn’t see any cameras anywhere. His heart skipped a beat.

“Hmm… I had work to do…” Ryan mused, as he tightened zip ties around Geoff’s ankles, securing them to the bed frame, before pulling away the sheet. “You didn’t need to know I was here.”

For a brief moment, Geoff was just thankful he’d worn clothes to bed. He swallowed, feeling something close to fear curling up inside him, but tried to keep his voice even. There _had_ to be cameras around somewhere. “Yeah, we get it, Ryan, you’re the psycho one. Joke’s over though, it’s not funny.”

“Oh, you’ll _wish_ this was a joke.”

“I mean,” Geoff smirked, “it’s about as funny as your jokes usually are.”

Ryan laughed a dark, menacing chuckle, unfazed by Geoff’s dig at him. It made Geoff’s blood run cold and the fear began to solidify in the pit of his stomach.

Ryan picked a bag up off the floor and dropped it on the bed next to him. Something in the bag _moved_ and Geoff froze, every muscle in his body going tense.

Ryan turned on the TV. “I see you’re still looking for the camera. That’s what made the others so easy…” He grinned, wolfishly, “I mean, it’s _content_ , right?”

He hit play on the remote control and a crude edit of GoPro footage flashed on the screen of each of the other Achievement Hunters sleeping in their beds. He paused it.

“The phrase: ‘Revenge is a dish best served cold…’ is really designed to keep you from seeking immediate retribution for one’s actions,” Ryan lectured, “few are so patient as to be able to appreciate the phrase for its true value and most of the time – _most_ of the time, people let stuff slide. ‘Time heals all wounds’ and all that nonsense.” Ryan chuckled again. “Except it really doesn’t. But if you’re patient… if you really take your time with it, let it evolve organically, you will be rewarded with opportunity. Like this.”

Geoff could feel himself shaking now. Ryan hit play on the remote and it showed him casually walk into Jack’s bedroom – where he’d been sleeping the night before – pick up the pillow from the empty bed and proceed to smother Jack.

“You didn’t, _Ryan_ , tell me you fucking didn’t!” Geoff’s eyes went wide as he watched Jack struggle against Ryan as he held the pillow to his face. The footage cut away before Jack stopped struggling, now showing Gavin and Michael asleep in twin beds as Ryan stalked in, this time with a cleaver in his hand…

Geoff shut his eyes as Ryan raised the knife over Gavin’s head, turning away instinctively.

“ _Ryan! What the fuck, Ryan?!_ ”

Ryan kept his tone calm and even and smug as he replied coolly, “I told you Geoff, _content_.”

“Except it’s not! It’s fucking not! What the fuck, Ryan, you’re insane!”

Suddenly, Geoff remembered Jeremy was meant to be sharing a room with him, the bed next to him was empty, sheets disturbed, but no Jeremy.

“Where is he, Ryan?”

Ryan’s grin faded, “He wasn’t part of it. He was the only one who tried to stop it… so I’ll keep him, for now.”

Geoff’s head spun, “What are you even…? Wait, is this…? This isn’t about your Gamertag?? That was a fucking Shenanigans! Ryan, that was a _joke_ , what the fuck is wrong with you?”

Ryan’s face went stony and dark, “Do you remember what I said, Geoff?”

Ryan’s words from all those years ago, flashed through his mind, immortalized by countless fan edit and compilation videos that relished the use of Ryan’s sinister tone. “ _Geoff, do you honestly think that’s dark enough for what you did to me?”_

The last part was made terrifyingly real by Ryan’s own voice echoing the memory, “You’ll realize what the shenanigans was on your death bed… Welcome to your death bed.”

He picked up the bag again and a faint rattle came from inside.

“What the fuck was _that_? Is that…?” Geoff was white as a ghost as the realization hit him.

“It’s your turn Geoff… I told you it’d be dark. You underestimated me. Big mistake,” he grinned wide, lowering his face to right next to Geoff’s, “…and it’s a rattlesnake – a diamondback if I’m not mistaken…”

Geoff screamed. A pure, unadulterated, top-of-his-lungs, bloodcurdling scream.

The entire house would have heard it.

Ryan’s grin widened, eventually cracking into hysterical giggling.

“Ry-an!” Gavin squawked through barely contained laughter as the door burst open, the others close behind him, phones at the ready, making sure to film the whole reveal.

“Oh my god Ryan that was fucking dark, even for you…” Michael snorted.

“ _‘I’ll keep him?’_ ” Jack repeated, “God damn, dude. That’s fucking creepy.”

Jeremy was giggling, as he used a pair of scissors to cut the zip ties at Geoff’s feet, “I’m terrified of Ryan now, and I _knew_ it was a Shenanigans.”

 “I told you…” Ryan’s giggles were just subsiding, “I’m still the evil one around here.”

“Dude, no fucking arguments there,” Jeremy said, “I can’t compete with that.”

Geoff was stunned into silence, still trembling on the bed, eyes fixed on the bag Ryan had dropped carelessly to the floor.

“What the FUCK?”

“And calm down, it’s not a snake, it’s my phone and some hose in a bag,” Ryan explained.

“And all you motherfuckers were in on this?!” Geoff roared at them.

Jeremy held off cutting the zip ties holding his hands… at least until he was sure they wouldn’t be murdered on the spot.

“Not at first…” Jack explained, “Ryan did pretend to try to kill us to get that footage…”

“He scared the absolute shit out of Gavin,” Michael interrupted.

“He was coming at me with a cleaver, Michael!”

Jack went on, “…but after he explained the idea, well…”

“Then it became a Shenanigans,” Michael finished his sentence.

Gavin was still grinning and filming, “this is gonna be one hell of a video, Geoff.”

Geoff let his head fall back into the pillow and screwed his eyes shut.

“Million-view video, at least, promise,” Jeremy agreed.

Geoff groaned reluctant acceptance. “You’d better have gotten it all on film.”

“Oh, don’t worry, we did,” Jeremy reassured him as he cut the zip ties.

Ryan clapped a hand on his shoulder, “Hey, I finally got my revenge, so I guess you can rest easy now, huh, Geoff?”

Geoff sat up, looked around at them all, still grinning like idiots and thought about how well the video would be received.

“I hate all of you.”


	2. Oujia

Jeremy, Michael, Gavin and Jack were exhausted and giddy in the AH office after a longer day of filming than any of them had anticipated. The lights and AC had been malfunctioning, flickering on and off all day, but they were really starting to go wild now and it made for a very spooky atmosphere.

“Hey, if you lads don’t have anywhere better to be… I’ve got an idea,” Gavin suggested.

A fan had sent them a Ouija board, painted up to look old and creepy and splattered with blood. It had come with a hand-written note from a fan and a handful of candles.

“Ryan opened this yesterday-”

“Typical,” Michael interrupted.

“-we should give it a go in the dark? It’ll make a great video, right? Halloween’s coming up,” Gavin grinned.

“He’s got a point…” Jeremy agreed with a shrug, “I’ve got nowhere to be.”

Jack and Michael looked at each other, before shrugging as well.

“It’s not gonna take long,” Gavin insisted, already setting up the candles and board.

Jeremy meanwhile had picked up the note and begun to read it aloud, “Hello AH…” he skimmed over the pleasantries, “my grandmother owned this Ouija board and my mom said we had to get rid of it after she freaked out at finding it in the attic, so I thought I’d send it to you, please prank Gavin with it…”

Gavin snorted a laugh.

“…the ritual starts when you light the candles and everyone places their fingers on the planchette – the wooden pointer thing – and then you ask questions to see if any spirits respond. Have fun, from Travis Erblonger.”

“Thanks Travis…” Jack mused, rolling his eyes.

“It’ll be fun,” Gavin assured them.

Michael sighed, “If anything it’ll be a good video, someone set up the camera.”

They had everything set up in just a few minutes, Jeremy and Gavin lit the candles and they all sat on the floor around the board, unsure as to what came next.

“I guess we just…” Jeremy put his fingers on the planchette and the others followed suit.

The lights flickered again and finally went out completely, leaving the office in silence and darkness.

After a silent beat, Jack spoke up, “Is anyone there?”

The candles flickered, throwing eerie shadows on the walls but nothing happened.

“Hellooo? Anyone home? Any ghosts of the AH office?” Jeremy tried.

“Makes sense, why the fuck would they want to stay _here_?” Michael said.

Gavin giggled, “Our fart bags gassed them out – we could sell them for… what’s that thing where you get rid of a ghost?”

“Poltergeist… wait, no: _exorcisms_!” Michael corrected.

“Well this here rock keeps tigers away…” Jeremy said and the others burst into laughter.

The planchette moved ever so slightly under their fingers and they all went silent.

“Who…?”

“Shh, shh,” Gavin hushed, “If you’re here, move the pointer.”

“This is so dumb…” Michael said in a high-pitched fake whisper.

“Okay… _Don’t_ move the pointer if you like steamy, guy on guy adult literature,” Jack suggested, causing Jeremy to burst out laughing.

He was suddenly silenced when the planchette moved under his fingers.

“What the _fuck_?!” Michael nearly cried out, “Alright, who was that?”

“Michael, that was you!” Gavin cried out.

“It wasn’t me, seriously, it really wasn’t me.”

“Guys, shhh…” Jack looked down at the board where the planchette was moving just slightly, like it was vibrating under their fingers.

The planchette moved slowly, spelling out the letters in turn: S-C-A-R-E-D

“Scared? Scared of what?” Jack asked gently.

“What’s a ghost got to be scared of?” Gavin asked, a slight tremor in his voice, that cast doubts he was the one pushing the pointer.

C-E-I-L-I-N-G…

“Ceiling? Scared of the ceiling?” Jeremy asked bewildered.

…D-I-C-K.

“Ceiling dick.” Michael said flatly.

Jack finally burst out laughing. “I got you so good.”

“Fucking ceiling dicks… Goddammit Jack.”

The lights flickered back on and stayed for a few moments.

Jeremy shook his head and looked up to the offending dildo in the ceiling.

It was gone.

“Shit!”

The lights flickered off again.

“Jeremy, what?”

“The ceiling dick is gone, it must’ve fallen down finally – maybe in the heat…”

“It was there this morning.”

“I didn’t see anything and I’ve been here pretty much all day,” Jack said.

“Then where…?”

The lights came on again and all eyes went to the hole in the ceiling where the dildo had been.

_There was something staring down at them through the hole._

The screams could be heard throughout the building and it took days before any of them could be convinced to come back to work, despite Geoff and Ryan’s reassurances that the dick in the ceiling was still there and had never moved.

Sadly, all the footage was lost.


	3. Massacre

Brittle bones twisted, joints straining under the pressure until eventually the sinew yielded, rending the joint itself, the bones popping from their sockets with wet smacks as the flesh ripped from bone, shreds of skin were left hanging from the tattered remains of remains. Ryan tore into it with his teeth, again and again, mercilessly consuming the limbs of countless victims. It was a massacre.

Finally sated, Ryan wiped the filth from his face, scrubbed his hands of any trace of his crime and quietly returned to work, no one the wiser anything had even happened. He had gotten away with it.

A short time later, Geoff came in, a cold look of fury in his eyes and the evidence in his hands…

Ryan sank deeper into his chair, avoiding eye contact, but Geoff was already glaring at him accusingly.

“Ryan? Did you eat _all_ the chicken wings?!”


	4. Midnight

“Uuugh! They couldn’t have just done it on a green screen or in a studio nooo… they had to film on location in the middle of the fucking night.”

Geoff hadn’t stopped complaining about the filming since he’d found out live action needed an AH cameo for a big upcoming project. They hardly even had to do anything. It was a gag bit. Stand around, look dumb, say something funny, that was it. But yet, here they were, still at work after a long-ass day of recording, told to be ready to go, waiting to be called up, and already hours over schedule, for what would amount to about ten seconds of screen time.

And it was fucking _midnight_ already.

Ryan was tossing – wait, _was that a knife?_ **–** into the air and catching it repeatedly, the steady beat of the catch just starting to grate on everyone’s nerves.

“Fuuuuck…” Geoff groaned again, rubbing his face with both hands, “How long does it take? We shut everything down hours ago!”

“To be fair Geoff, this isn’t unusual…” Michael started, Gavin pre-emptively nodding alongside him, still playing with his phone.

“I don’t wanna hear about when you were filming Lazer Team! I just want this to be over so I can go home.”

“We could film a Let’s Play?” Jeremy suggested, cautiously optimistically.

“By the time we get everything set up and start recording they’ll call us up, you watch,” Ryan reasoned.

“You said that same thing fucking hours ago, Ryan,” Jack said stirring out of a daze, “we could’ve easily filmed two Let’s Plays since you first said no.”

“How was I supposed to know they’d fuckin’ take this long?” Ryan argued.

“We tried to bloody tell you they take forever, Ryan!” Gavin protested.

“For once we should’ve listened to Gavin,” Geoff sighed.

Gavin pulled his smug face at Ryan and Jeremy burst out laughing as Ryan simply caught the knife, flipped it open and raised an eyebrow in a vaguely menacing manner.

“Jesus Ryan,” Jack muttered under his breath, “be _more_ creepy, would you?”

Ryan grinned and flicked the knife closed again, resuming his steady throw-catch pace without a word.

_He succeeded._

“We should’ve at least heard _something_ from them by now, though, right?” Jeremy asked, “they said ten minutes at least an hour ago…”

“An hour and a half,” Geoff corrected with a scowl.

Jack’s eyebrows knitted together, “Maybe they changed the schedule or the script or something… Should someone go check?”

Michael stretched and stood up, “I’ll go.”

“I’ll come too,” Jeremy volunteered, “I gotta take a piss while I’m at it.”

Ryan chuckled, “be safe you two, don’t get lost.” He waved at them with his knife.

“Yes, _dad_ ,” Michael retorted, not fazed in the slightest by Ryan’s slightly unhinged nature, “back soon…”

The door clicked shut behind them and Ryan closed his knife again, about to toss it when-

“I swear to god, Ryan, if you throw that knife one more time…”

Ryan stifled a laugh and put the knife down, knowing Geoff was entering the phase of being genuinely annoyed. With no way of telling how much longer they’d have to tolerate one another amicably, he thought it wise not to continue to rile him up.

“We could open a puzzle?” Jack tried, “God knows we’ve got enough of them.”

“Only if I get to flip it.”

“Yes, Geoff, you can flip it,” Ryan said, getting up to select a puzzle from the growing pile behind his desk, “as long as you clean it up.”

Geoff smirked, a non-committal promise that that wasn’t likely to happen, but no one in the room wanted to argue it.

“Can we do that all-black one?” Gavin asked, sitting up to peer over the monitors, interested now as Ryan sorted through the puzzles.

“God that’s gonna take forever,” Jack mused.

Geoff looked at his watch and pulled a face, “hey, do any of you guys have the time? I think my watch stopped, it still says midnight.”

Jack checked his watch, “no, that’s right, mine says midnight too.”

“Weird, my phone says it’s 12:37…” Gavin added.

“Mine too,” Ryan spun around to check the clock on the shelf behind him, “that’s creepy, this one says 12 too.”

Suddenly the door flew open and Michael and Jeremy came crashing through.

“They’re gone!” Jeremy said, almost panting.

“What?” Gavin asked.

“They’re completely fucking gone,” Michael repeated, eyes wide, “everything, cast crew, equipment… all gone.”

Jack and Geoff looked at each other, matching expressions of shock and confusion on their faces. Ryan and Gavin just looked puzzled.

“Have they gone home, moved on, changed location…?” Ryan suggested.

Michael shook his head, “They’re just fucking _gone_.”

Gavin frowned, “There was a whole crew, there were like fifty people at least. They can’t just be _gone_ …”

“See for yourselves,” Jeremy held open the door for them as they all filed out to the car park where an entire film crew had been only hours prior.

As Michael shoved open the door they were met with a silent, dark completely empty parking lot.

“Motherfuckers.”

Geoff took a few steps into the empty car park, muttering something as he pulled out his phone to try to figure out where everyone had gotten to.

The air hung still and eerily silent as Geoff flipped through his contacts. It was _too_ quiet…

He looked up to realise he was alone. Where the rest of Achievement Hunter had been standing only seconds ago, there was nothing.

“Guys?” He called out tentatively.

The only reply was the sound of his watch, as it began ticking again.


	5. Blood

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> I mean, it's titled Blood, so naturally there's a blood and mild gore warning...

As he rounded the corner, his heel struck the edge of a dark stain on the concrete floor and immediately slid out from under him, throwing him off-balance. He hit the ground in the stain with a wet thump. The floor was sticky. For a moment, he forgot entirely about the figure chasing him as he lifted his hands from the thick, warm liquid on the ground and realised with horror it was blood. A few more droplets dripped beside him, adding to the widening pool he was sitting in. Slowly, he lifted his gaze, not wanting to see the source of the blood. Not wanting to think about how long it had been since he’d seen Michael or Geoff or Jack.

He swallowed as he was greeted by a wet shock of curly, auburn hair, all the redder for the blood that was staining it. Black cloth tape was wrapped around his head, holding his mouth closed; no doubt, to prevent him from calling out. Not that he could any longer. His eyes rolled back in his head, open and glassy. His face was flushed and streaked red with blood from where it had flowed out of the gash in his abdomen and down his face as he hung upside down, suspended by his ankles from the rafters.

“Michael!” Gavin couldn’t help but cry out at the sight, his hands instinctively shooting up to cover his face, smearing him with Michael’s blood, to his own horror.

He was frozen in panic, so much so that he failed to hear the footsteps approaching from behind him.

Gavin suddenly found a fist in his hair, fingers entangling themselves in his dark blonde locks and gripping it tightly, yanking him roughly upwards.

He let out a yelp and scrambled to try to get away before a second hand closed around his arm in a crushing grip and dragged him, still scrambling to find his feet, to the other side of the room, where a coil of rope was waiting.

“No!” He cried out and struggled against the man’s iron grip, but there was no yield. He didn’t think he’d resort to begging so quickly, but the words were out of his mouth before he could process them, _“please, please, let me go… don’t do this, please…”_

A dark chuckle came from behind the crude, smiling mask the figure wore. There was no mercy in it and Gavin’s blood ran cold.

He was lifted further up by his arm, twisted at a painful angle, before the man threw him to the ground. He couldn’t catch himself in time and his head contacted the floor hard; his vision turning to starbursts.

The killer took his chance to grab Gavin’s foot, looping one end of the rope around his ankle and securing it before reaching for the second.

Gavin had enough sense to try to kick him away, thrashing with all his effort, but he lacked the strength to do any real damage, and the killer easily caught his other foot, wrapped it with rope and lashed it securely to the first, leaving Gavin helplessly flailing on his stomach.

He knew what came next.

The killer was already preparing the pulley system. He would be hung next to Michael.

_Together forever._ He thought bleakly. 

Gavin only half-registered he was sobbing as the killer winched him up; dragging him as he scrabbled against the floor pathetically with his arms, but there was nothing to find purchase on.

As he was hoisted higher, his arms reached out in all directions, trying to find something solid, the killer standing tantalizingly out of reach, the enormous and terrifying bloody machete hanging from his belt just outside of the range of his grasp.

The killer chuckled again, seeing him reach out, as he tied off the rope, leaving Gavin’s head hanging about level with the killer’s chest.

The mask stared back at him, grinning down with empty eyes.

Gavin reached out to fight back, but again, the killer seized his wrist tightly in his grasp. This time, he pulled out and downwards, hard. Gavin’s shoulder popped loudly, and he let out a howl of pain as it hung limply out of joint. The killer grabbed his other arm and just as effortlessly popped that socket from its joint too. Pain shot through him as he felt more tears streak his face and he grunted, biting back his cries, arms hanging uselessly either side of his head.

“That’s better. Easier, you see?”

Gavin sobbed as his body spun slightly against his will, he could see Michael’s lifeless form swaying beside him.

“It’s ok, you can scream. It won’t matter soon.”

Gavin was hyperventilating, the blood was rushing to his head and pounded in his ears. His eyes felt like they were bulging and his shoulders radiated pain. He only just managed to gasp out: “Why are you doing this?!”

“See, the reason I hang you upside down is so the blood goes to your brain… which means you stay conscious for longer. You get to be awake as long as possible while you slowly exsanguinate – bleed out - or alternatively, you get to live to experience the sensation of your insides on the outside if I decide to eviscerate you.”

Gavin whimpered as the killer took his wicked machete and ran the cold steel of the flat of the blade across his skin where his shirt had slipped, leaving his soft belly exposed.

“That’s why I had to gag Michael… took a real long time for him to bleed out..." The killer chuckled darkly, “But don’t worry, Gavin, I’m not going to kill you.”

He reached up a bloody hand and slid the awful mask up, a familiar face grinning down at Gavin.

“Ryan… It’s _you_? _You_ you?”

"You doubted?"

“But…” Gavin stammered, “You killed Michael!”

“Exactly. Which is why I’m not going to kill you.”

“You’re not?”

“No! Don’t be silly, Gavin…”

The blood was rushing to Gavin’s head, he was losing his mind, this wasn’t happening.

Another voice came from behind him and again, Gavin was filled with an overwhelming sense of dread.

“Aww… You saved him for me! Thanks, Ryan.”

_Jeremy._

“The others?” Ryan asked, far too calmly for Gavin’s liking.

“Taken care of – for now.”

“Excellent! He’s all yours then,” Ryan handed his machete to Jeremy who promptly lined it up with Gavin’s exposed navel.

“Jeremy!” Gavin cried with all the desperation of a final plea for his life.

“Don’t worry Gavin…" Jeremy assured him, "It won't go to waste. It’s all part of the ritual.”

The blade sliced along his belly and after the shock of pain and spasms it sent his body into, Gavin felt the blood flow warm down his body and over his face, dripping onto the ground below him. His arms had pins and needles and the blood trapped in his head was pounding, rushing sounds in his ears harmonizing with the steady drip of his blood on the floor. The world started to go fuzzy around him and he closed his eyes, concentrating only on the sounds, that seemed to be growing clearer; Jeremy and Ryan’s maniacal laughter crystallising into something more… _alarming?_

 

He opened his eyes with a start, the pillow drenched in cold sweat, his arms entangled in the pillowcase above his head, throbbing with painful pins and needles. Smee was laying on his chest, kneading into his belly with sharp claws and his phone buzzed beside the bed, alarm reminding him it was time to get ready to go to work.

_Just a nightmare._

_What a nightmare._ He really needed to stop indulging Jeremy and Ryan's creepy in-game schemes.

He breathed a long sigh of relief as he rubbed feeling back into his arms and cuddled Smee in close, prying his claws off his stomach and finally relaxing.

“Not the worst nightmare I’ve had, Smee,” he explained to the cat, “at least I didn’t lose any footage.”


	6. Games

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> A little spookier than some of the others...

It was a generic horror game, not even a particularly good one, but it had just been released in VR and Halloween was coming up. Ryan seemed impervious to jump scares and Jeremy was the most shaken by them… well, after Geoff, but there was fuck-all chance they were getting Geoff into VR. So naturally, they were filming a Halloween-edition Battle Buddies special of VR the Champions. Ryan was thrilled.

Jeremy had to admit, he was marginally less terrified by the concept with Ryan playing by his side. Battle Buddies were all about the killing, so they had every intent of going into this one and doing whatever they could to make it about them murdering ghosts in the face. If they could make that happen, it would all be awesome.

Everything was set up and working, Ryan had pre-tested the headsets and made sure both players could get to the home screen. All the technicalities sorted, they dove into the game.

Immediately, Jeremy hated it.

The game had them start in separate rooms of the same creepy, abandoned house with some severe electrical problems, made all the worse by the fact it was also set in the middle of a storm. They’d deliberately avoided any spoilers for the game and all they knew was that they had to find each other before the clock reached midnight or else one of them would be taken by spirits.

Lightning flashed, illuminating the room Jeremy was in and he looked around, spotting a flashlight and warping over to it, picking it up off the ground.

“I found a flashlight, Ryan!”

“Good! We’ll need that, hold onto it! Does it work?”

Jeremy tried the buttons to switch it on, but got a small message in the corner of the screen _batteries required._ “Shit, it needs batteries.”

“I’ll keep a lookout for batteries for you.”

Jeremy continued to search the house, wandering aimlessly. The VR was immersive, but the headphones were the worst. He could hear Ryan over the in-game audio, but only just. It meant they had to listen much harder, which meant they wouldn’t miss the creak of floorboards or quiet childish giggles coming from behind them.

They caught Jeremy off-guard when he realised they weren’t part of the background audio and were coming from much closer behind him than he thought.

He spun around abruptly, ready to fight – with absolutely nothing.

“What the fuck was that?! Are there kids in this game?”

“Oh, you got the giggles?” Jeremy could hear Ryan’s grin – he knew more about this game than he’d let on, “Yeah, the angry spirits are supposed to be kinda Children of the Corn-ish.”

“Great…”

“Hopefully they’ll go for you first, pick on someone their own size…”

“Aww, Ryan – Battle Buddy – please, that hurts.”

Ryan laughed, but sounded sympathetic, “I’m sorry, that joke was _beneath_ me…”

Jeremy groaned and Ryan giggled, “ok, that was just bad, we can cut that.”

Jeremy scoffed, redirecting the conversation back to the game, “What happens if they catch you?”

“I haven’t seen… but I’ve heard they surround you and turn you into a bloody paste.”

“Tasty…”

“We’ll have to cut that too if we don’t make it,” Ryan chuckled, “spoilers.”

“Oh, we’ll make it, Ryan,” Jeremy assured him in his most optimistic-bordering-on-cocky _‘we’re the Battle Buddies and we got this’_ tone.

“I hope so… I don’t wanna be goo, Jeremy.”

“Don’t worry Ryan, we _do goo_ , so we won’t _be goo_.”

Ryan laughed, “I hope you’re right, ‘cause we’re really running outta time here. Where are you?”

“Umm…” Jeremy looked around, all the hallways looked identical, the idea of the game to be as maze-like as possible to try to confuse players as they attempted to navigate to find each other without any kind of map. There were spooky markers along the way, but some of them would mess with you, popping up to give jump scares if you got too close.

“I’m in a hallway… there’s boxes and three doors on one side, two on the other and one at the end of the hall…”

“You’re literally describing every hallway in the house,” Ryan joked, a note of playful frustration in his voice.

“Umm… Oh, there’s a box! It’s like a Jack-in-the-box, one of those wind-up ones… Hang on I’m going over to it.”

“I wouldn’t if I were…”

Jeremy remembered the jumpscare too late and as soon as he warped to it, a clown sprung from the box, filling his vision with its terrifying, teeth-filled mouth and loud circus music. He screamed and physically jumped, heart racing a mile a minute before he collapsed to his knees, shaking.

“Holy shit, Ryan!”

“Jeremy!” Ryan tried to play it serious, but he was there was a note of laughter in his words, “What was that? What happened? Are you ok?”

“The fucking clown, Ryan… Just… oh my god. I need a second,” Jeremey panted, slowly climbing back to his feet.

“Did you say clown? Oh, I think I know where that is! Hang tight Jeremy, I’m coming.”

Jeremy was still in shock as the music in his headphones resumed, this time overlaid with creepy, sing-song, childish voices…

_“One, two, they’re coming for you…”_

“Ryan, do you hear that?” He looked around, but he couldn’t see anything.

“Hear what?”

_“…three, four, better lock the door…”_

“The singing.”

“I got nothing, but time’s running out. We got about 30 seconds to midnight.”

_“…five, six, they’ll all think you’re sick…”_

 “Hurry, Ryan.”

_“…seven, eight, get your story straight…”_

“I’m coming Jeremy!”

 “Ryan!”

_“…nine, ten, never see him again.”_

“Almost-” Ryan’s voice cut off with a blood-curdling scream.

The sound sent chills down Jeremy’s spine. He immediately spun towards the sound and tried to get to him. He’d never heard Ryan so scared. He had no idea what had done it, but Jeremy felt just as scared as Ryan sounded.

His screen went black.

“…Ryan?”

Just then, the clock struck midnight, the audio echoing unbearably loud in his headphones, to the point where he instinctively went to cover his ears, the action immediately breaking the illusion and reminding him it was just a game. He shook himself out of it a little, calming down and waited for his body to follow suit. The clock beat out the remainder of its ear-splitting gongs and then suddenly, all was quiet.

The screen faded back into view with a bloody, dripping “You Lose” across the menu.

Jeremy sighed, just happy the whole thing was over, hoping it was long enough they wouldn’t have to film anymore in-game to get a usable video out of it.

He laughed nervously as he removed the headset and untangled himself from the myriad of cables, “That was way more intense than I was expecting, hey Ryan?”

No response.

He looked around. The room was empty. Ryan was gone. His headset, headphones and mic left on the floor where he should have been. There was no trace of him except for…

Jeremy froze.

There was blood smeared on the carpet, bloody footprints tracking back to _– his own shoes?_

He was covered in blood, sprayed over his pants and shirt and shoes, on his hands and face, under his nails. His blood ran cold.

A childlike giggle filled the room – or maybe it was just in his head.

There was a knock at the door.

_“One, two, they’re coming for you…”_


	7. Chains

Geoff was alone in the office, it was later in the day on a Friday and everyone had either gone home for the day, or headed over to film On The Spot… at least he thought that’s where Jeremy had gotten to. At any rate, he was finishing up sending some emails – probably stuff he could’ve done on his phone from home – and only now thinking about actually getting up to leave. Then he’d have traffic to contend with… Give it another half hour, let it die down first. Maybe play a round of PUBG…

57 alive. No kills yet. Geoff was playing tactically pacifist. Not entirely on purpose, but it was working, so he wasn’t arguing. He waited in silence just inside the white zone, crouched behind some trees, just waiting. Listening.

He could’ve sworn he heard something… Had the game updated? Changed the sounds in some way? He listened harder. It was familiar to him but he couldn’t quite place it.

Wait, was that even coming from his headphones? He took a good look around in-game and deciding the coast was clear, at least temporarily, he took off his headphones and listened again. It was coming from outside the office. Gentle clinking or rattling or … _jangling_ was a better word for it. It sounded like… chains maybe? Heavy ones. Who would have chains? And why were they walking around here, now?

She shook his head and shrugged it off, putting his headphones back on just in time to catch the sound of the shotgun that unloaded into his head, blood exploding all over his character as he went down on his hands and knees.

“Mother fucker!”

His opponent finished him swiftly.

Rank #42.

Lousy.

Geoff let out a frustrated growl and began to pack up. Fuck it, that was enough. Time to go home.

As he took his headphones off, he heard it again.

He paused and waited, listening harder now.

The jangling continued. It was, it sounded like the clank heavy of chains swaying as someone walked with them. It reminded him of – _that was it_ – the Let’s Play Live tour! Ryan dressed up as the trapper from Dead By Daylight; he had the chains and the machete. While the machete was a plastic prop, the chain had been real. Geoff vividly remembered Ryan trying to wrap it around his neck as he tried to play, dragging it over his shoulders as if it were a snake…

He shuddered.

Ryan had gone home, had to be someone else. Who else would have chains? Someone from the prop department messing with him? Or maybe just lost or waiting for someone. Coincidence. He shook his head and brushed it off, turning his station off and heading out.

He threw open the door to leave, pulling it shut behind him, making sure it locked properly behind him. Especially if there were potential weirdos stalking the corridors almost-after-hours.

Geoff froze as he looked up and saw the silhouette at the end of the hall. He squinted, “Ryan?”

The figure wore the costume Ryan had worn for LPL – it matched Ryan’s build perfectly. Had to be him. He must’ve gotten a call from Laurie that everything was cool and he wasn’t needed afterall. Decided to mess with him instead…

_Fair call_ , Geoff reasoned, as long as he’s making content, I don’t care.

Very funny Ryan, you got me good back in the office… what happened, you forget your code or something? The figure simply tilted their head to one side.

“Yup, I get it, you’re very creepy Ryan…” Geoff sighed, wishing Ryan would drop the routine.

The figure was up in his face, looming heavily over him, breathing hard into the mask.

“Well, guess I’ll see you Monday, Ryan, have a good weekend!” Geoff turned on his heel and started the opposite direction.

The rattling of chains made his pause for just a spit second… big mistake. It was all it took. The chain came over his head and Geoff grappled with it too late as strong hands behind his gripped the ends of the chain and pulled back, twisting so it tightened against Geoff’s throat and he couldn’t twists away. He was trapped.

“Ryan! Fucks Sake!” He managed to scream, before a sharp tug and twist cut him off, the chain finally biting cold into skin and pinching, cutting off Geoff’s air supply. He gasped and scrabbled against the chain, to no avail. The killer – Geoff was no longer sure it was Ryan – pulled backwards, knocking Geoff’s legs out from under him and dragging him backwards again. They pulled up on the chain, strong arms lifting Geoff partway off the ground, suspended only by his neck wrapped in the chain. His throat burned as he gasped for breath, hands now tapping uselessly at the killer’s legs. The world was starting to fade out, getting all soft and shiny around the edges as Geoff could just hear a ruckus at the end of the hall. It sounded like Jeremy… he wanted to call out to him – to warn him, but as he opened his mouth, nothing came out and suddenly his world became black.

 

“Holy shit, Geoff?!” Jeremy’s voice cut through the too-bright light, "are you ok?"

“Jeremy? Watch out!” Geoff suddenly remembered the killer – the killer who may still be around.

“Geoff, it’s ok, it’s ok… what happened? You were passed out right on the floor outside the office.”

Geoff spluttered, his voice hoarse, “there was a man. A killer, I thought…  thought it was Ryan in the Let’s Play Live outfit… You must’ve seen him. He pointed to a spot beside him, was right _there_ when I screamed. There’s no way you could’ve missed him.”

Jeremy looked around to Matt and Trevor, who must’ve been on On The Spot with him…

“You must’ve imagined it; hit your head or something?”

“No,” Geoff asserted, “there’s no way, he was right _there_.”

A chill crept up Geoff’s spine. He knew what Jeremy was going to say before he said it.

“Geoff,” Jeremy said, completely sincerely, “when we found you; you were completely alone.”


	8. Skeleton

Ryan strolled onto the Off Topic set late, it wasn’t like they’d been missing him; it was supposed to be Michael, Jeremy, Jack and Geoff, but Gavin had somehow missed a flight and apparently had nothing better to do, so he’d showed up to hang out as well. Meanwhile, Ryan had (finally) completed his designated task of trying to install Fuel. He wasn’t sure if he should be thrilled or disappointed, but it left him with an empty conflicted feeling that killed any motivation to be productive, so eventually boredom and curiosity got the better of him and he headed over.

“Heeeyy! It’s Ryan!” Michael greeted him in the most suspicious way possible. They’d probably been talking about him. _What else was new?_

“Hey, you uh… you finish the thing?” Geoff asked, concentrating on the new puzzle they’d started, playing coy.

Ryan smirked, “I did indeed.”

There was a collective noise from the group that summed up the sentiment, a relieved, yet annoyed, cheer of despair.

“Can’t talk about that yet though,” Geoff was quick to add.

“Aside from _that_ , what’s new with you, Ryan?”

Ryan pulled a face, thinking back to anything interesting that may have happened to him – that he was allowed to talk about of course.

“Oh,” he said casually recalling, “I found a skeleton in my garden this weekend.”

“You mean _last_ weekend.”

Ryan pointed a warning finger at him, “They’re called _context clues_ , Jack…”

“Oh god, don’t start that again,” Geoff groaned, only just looking up from the puzzle he was pouring over.

Jeremy was actually listening for once, “did you say a _skeleton_?”

“Yep. Complete skeleton.”

“Of _what_?” Gavin asked, expecting the answer to be clarified as a small animal of some kind.

“A person… too far gone to tell anything beyond that.”

“Ryan?! What the hell?”

“Ryan,” Michael started, “Only you could come into work on a Friday and drop the fact that you found human remains on your property four days ago as casually as if you’d gotten a haircut.”

“Oh, I did also get a haircut,” Ryan grinned.

“I noticed,” Jeremy remarked, “looks good.”

“Thank you!”

“Can we just back up a bit here? You found a human skeleton in your backyard?” Geoff asked, an eyebrow raised incredulously.

“Yeah.”

“And you don’t remember _burying_ it at all?” Jack joked.

Ryan indulged him with a look of exaggerated contemplation, “no… pretty sure this one wasn’t me.”

“ _This one_.” Jack repeated with a snort of laughter.

“It’s actually probably been there since long before I moved in. Probably from a forgotten graveyard or something,” he shrugged, “the police came to collect it, checked the rest of the yard, asked a few questions… Wasn’t that big of a deal, really.”

“You know what _is_ a big deal?” Michael used the moment to segue to an ad read, clearing his throat and picking up the iPad to read.

Ryan took his cue to wander off set and grab a diet coke from the fridge. He briefly wondered if maybe he shouldn't have said anything, but then again, he hadn't given any details and no one knew where he lived, so it was probably fine...

Michael was just finishing off the read, Jeremy gesticulating wildly next to him. Jack and Geoff staring intently at the puzzle and Gavin amusedly observing the scene between checking his phone, probably for flight updates.

As soon as the read finished, Gavin brought the conversation right back.

“Ryan, if I found a skeleton in my backyard-”

“You’re still talking about that, huh?” Geoff interrupted. Spanning an ad-read wasn’t a normal occurrence for Off Topic.

“-I’d be out of there in an instant,” Gavin said, “I’d find a hotel or something to stay at until it was all sorted.”

“I don’t see how it’d make a difference,” Ryan said, cracking the tab on his coke and taking a sip.

“What’s there to sort, Gavin?” Jeremy asked.

“Whose body is it? What if they were murdered?”

Ryan shrugged, making non-committal noises.

“What if their ghost is haunting your house right now?” Michael added, cracking a smile.

Everyone laughed at that.

The conversation naturally drifted to another topic and the skeleton story was soon forgotten.

~

The knock at the door on Sunday morning was unexpected, but Ryan answered good-naturedly. Two police officers greeted him politely. It was about the body they’d retrieved the week prior, they had some follow-up questions to ask him. They would need him to accompany them to the police station. He was a little confused, but agreed.

He’d never ridden in the back of a police car before and it felt a little unnerving, especially with the barrier between himself and the officers and the doors that wouldn’t open from the inside. Again, the thought that maybe he'd fucked up by mentioning it on Off Topic came bubbled up in his brain, but he dismissed it. It was probably fine. _Probably_. Soon they’d arrived, although Ryan was still on edge. They took him to a marked interview room and read him a stack of legal documents which he consented to sign before they began.

“Can you state your name for the record?” They started.

“James Ryan Haywood.”

“Thank you.”

There was an uneasy pause before the policewoman went on, “How long have you lived at your current residence?”

He couldn’t shake the feeling of unease, “Coming up six years now…”

“Preliminary forensic analysis suggests the remains uncovered in your yard had been there for approximately five years.”

Ryan swallowed hard, “That can’t be right, surely. I would’ve noticed that…”

“Any reason why you might not have? A long holiday perhaps, some renovations?”

Ryan tried to think but nothing came to mind. He shook his head. He could feel his heart beat harder in his chest. “What… do you think that _I_ had something to do with this?”

The officers looked at each other, before the woman opened a file, spinning it around so he could read it.

Ryan’s eyes shot down to the paper, skimming over the results.

His stomach dropped.

“DNA and dental analysis from the body came up with a match in our database. To James Ryan Haywood.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Want more of this? [Blue_Kat thought you might](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12307956).


	9. Moon

The pent-up aggression had been eating at him for the past few days now and he needed to work it out. He’d been snapping at people more than usual and he was staring to notice it. So were they. It wasn’t anything specific, just a mood he’d managed to somehow get himself into, probably hormones or stress or something. Fortunately, he’d recently gotten himself a punching bag and hung it out on the back porch for this very purpose. Unfortunately, the mood to work it out productively didn’t strike him until well after sunset and he spent several hours berating himself for his poor performance in the latest-craze, ridiculously hard, boss-fight-heavy run and gun game first.

Eventually he snapped, slamming the controller down and stripping off his clothes to swap to something more suitable for beating the shit out of inanimate objects. He quickly wrapped his hands and stepped out into the cool night air, already feeling a sense of catharsis washing over him. The air smelled like damp earth and pine needles and he jogged on the spot for a minute before he dropped to the ground to pump out a few warm up push-ups. Getting the blood pumping was already helping. As he squared up against the punching bag, the clouds rolled across the full blue moon, casting eerie shadows in the yard.

His jabs struck fast and hard. _One. One-two. One-two. One-two. One-two-three. One-two-three._

The bag swung in a steady rhythm under his punishing pace as his blows met with surprising precision considering how out of practice he was. In no time he’d worked up a light sweat, a sheen reflecting the moonlight off his head as the cloud rolled away again. Something in the moonlight pulled his attention skywards, the hair on the back of his neck raising. Somewhere in the distance he could’ve sworn he heard a howl.

The full moon shone bright and he felt like his senses had somehow heightened, his muscles felt like they were infused with metal, he felt invincible. This was different to his usual post-exercise high, he felt it in his blood, in his very being; he felt powerful… and _wrong_. His heart beat faster and his skin crawled, every hair bristling to attention. Something wasn’t right.

His bones creaked, his muscles spasmed and he doubled over forward; it felt like his skin was suddenly consumed by fire ants, burning and itching all over, but that was nothing in comparison to the feeling of his very bones changing inside him. A scream tore from his throat, but came out garbled, a horrible, inhuman growl. Fur sprouted from his body all over, dark and coarse and wiry. His teeth elongated and he tasted blood, his gums and tongue not prepared for the contact of the razor-sharp incisors. His eyes teared up as the bones of his face shifted painfully, his face stretching outwards, a snout growing literally in front of his eyes. His feet and hands grew claws and he fell forwards trying to keep his balance despite his newfound strength.

The pain was blinding for a moment longer before it began to subside, a new heightened perception of reality flooding his senses. Like getting glasses for the first time, everything was crisper, sights, smells, sounds, sensations. He was in stimulatory overload and he felt _strong_. He felt the insatiable urge to destroy something, _someone_. He wanted to taste blood.

The force of the moon now coursing through his veins, he took off, unafraid, looking to quench his thirst.   

 

~

The following day, a Let’s Play was released that they had filmed about a week before – a 7 Days to Die – in the game, Jeremy was being chased by wild dogs.

“Aww puppy! He just wants a hug Lil J,” Gavin giggled as Jeremy’s character leapt up onto a car to avoid the dogs.

“Have you guys ever been bitten by a stray dog? Because I gotta tell you, it _sucks_.”

“You got bit Lil’ J?” Gavin asked, genuinely interested.

“I feel like there’s a story in this…” Jack smirked.

“There is,” Jeremy started, “but it’s not very exciting. I was here late a couple of weeks ago, I’d been drinking, so I decided to catch an Uber home. I was waiting outside and this huge… I mean seriously fucking _huge_ black dog. Super mangy looking too.”

“Aww, puppy,” Jack repeated Gavin’s earlier comment.

“ _Aww puppy_ my ass! He was all teeth, this thing wanted my blood. Got my leg through my jeans… I only just managed to get up on the fence in time and then the Uber came and scared it off.”

“I hope you gave him a good review,” Michael commented.

“…and a tip. I had to get a rabies shot, you know how much those suck?”

“Got any silver bullets while you’re at it?” Gavin giggled, “although, werewolf Jeremy is something I’d like to see, I mean, you’re halfway there already.”

“Gavin please…” Jeremy rolled his eyes, “I’m sure there are fanfics out there already…”


	10. Bad Luck

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Probably unwise to read this one if you have a fear of flying...

“Dammit!” Gavin cried out as the wheel spun to land squarely on bankrupt.

“Oooh, unlucky Gavin.” Geoff snickered from the peanut gallery that had formed.

Jack, Gavin and Jeremy were playing, but Heroes and Halfwits had finished filming earlier than expected and the others had gathered to watch on from the couch.

“I swear this game has it out for Gavin,” Jeremy commented.

Gavin shook his head pathetically, “I knew it too…”

The turn moved to Jack who without hesitation said, “Yes, I’d like to solve it… Seven Years Bad Luck.”

“That’s a movie?” Jeremy asked raising an eyebrow.

Jack smirked smugly, “Yeah it is.”

“It’s about Gavin’s life,” Ryan joked.

Michael scoffed, “Please, Gavin’s life has been anything but unlucky.”

Gavin laughed.

“Can you imagine,” Jack suggested, “if all the good luck we got in our lives had to balance out with bad luck before we died?”

“Jack asking the Gavin questions,” Geoff noted with a smirk.

Jack ignored him, “How many of would be absolutely fucked in our old age?”

“I dunno,” Ryan mused, “I think I’ve had my fair share of balance in the luck department… I have almost died more than once.”

“Now, would you count that as good luck or bad luck, because you _did_ survive?” Jeremy asked, only half-seriously.

“I’d be screwed,” Gavin said, answering Jack’s original question with little hesitation.

“I mean, we _all_ got stupid lucky to be here,” Michael noted, clearly feeling a touch sentimental and maybe a little tipsy.

“Hey!” Geoff snapped, “I worked fuckin’ hard for my success, thank you very much!”

“That’s not to say we didn’t work hard for it-” Jeremy clarified, “but you gotta admit, we did get fucking lucky to get where we are now, even with the work.”

“No arguments here,” Ryan agreed.

“Exactly,” Jack continued, “so just imagine, if all that good luck balanced out. How much bad luck would we be in for?”

Gavin let it sink in for a moment and then shivered, “Ugh, I don’t wanna think about it, I feel like I’m jinxed just thinking about it. Thanks a lot Jack.” He shivered again as if trying to shake off the bad vibes.

Michael hummed a giggle watching him, “You right there Gavin?”

“Feels weird, I just- ugh, nope, don’t even want to think about it.”

There was a smattering of laughter, but a distinct sense of unease about the room that no one properly acknowledged as they went back to playing Wheel of Fortune.

~

Gavin scrambled out of the car, slamming the door and only just remembering to grab his bag as he raced for the check-in counter. He just made it. The woman at the desk told him how lucky he was and that he should hurry through security, he’d be pushing to make the flight, they’d be boarding soon. He flew through security, narrowly avoiding getting held up further for a random check, security picking the woman in front of him out of line instead. Again, luckily, he just made it. He ran to the departure gate as they were calling the final page of his name.

The flight attendant scanned his ticket with a mildly frustrated but polite smile, “You’re very lucky sir, we almost left without you.”

“Lucky I’m lucky then,” Gavin grinned back, out of breath.

He was directed to his seat by the flight attendant, plonking down unceremoniously in seat number B13 and he let out a sigh of relief. He’d made it. By the skin of his teeth, but he’d done it.

As he secured his luggage and fastened his seatbelts, the flight attendants went through the usual safety routine. Gavin almost knew it by heart. He rarely got nervous before a flight, and maybe it was the adrenaline from nearly missing this one, but he couldn’t shake the feeling of unease that settled in the pit of his stomach. There was nothing he could do about it now though, so he did his best to relax and settle back in his seat. Nine more hours and he’d be on the ground again.

~

Gavin awoke with a start as his shins struck painfully against the chair in front of him, his stomach dropping out beneath him as the plane jolted in the air, hitting some invisible bump in the road – turbulence.

“Your attention please, the Captain has turned on the fasten seatbelt sign, please return to your seats and fasten your seatbelts. Please refrain from using the bathrooms while the fasten seatbelt sign is on.”

As soon as the flight attendant had made the announcement, the captain’s voice came over the speakers with an urgent tone that Gavin hadn’t heard on a flight before, “Passengers, this is your Captain speaking, looks like we’re in for a patch of rough turbulence, please stay in your seats with your seatbelts fastened and stow any luggage and tray tables.”

The plane hit another bump and the pilot added, “Cabin crew please be seated.” Again, the tone was off, something felt wrong. Gavin followed the directions, fastening his seatbelt and stowing his tray table. The plane jerked violently again, sending the drink of the woman across from him flying. None of the flight attendants moved to retrieve it, all of them seated with their harnesses fastened. They looked nervous.

Gavin tried to convince himself it was fine. Nothing had happened to him so far. He was always just lucky like that…

The lights in the cabin flickered.

_…Wasn’t he?_

The captain’s voice came over the loudspeakers again, terse with controlled terror, “All passengers and crew brace for emergency landing.”


	11. Zombie Plan

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Ok, the timing on this could not be more perfect. I've spent the whole day researching zombie-like diseases for an assignment. Can you tell?

“With all the weapons we have in this place, I’m definitely coming here when the zombie apocalypse hits…”

Ryan walked in to catch the tail end of a conversation about the variety of weapons they’d been stockpiling.

“Ooh! We talking zombie apocalypse plans?”

“Yeah!” Jeremy enthused, “What’s yours?”

Ryan grabbed a diet coke from the fridge and snapped the tab on it, taking a long sip as he strode towards his desk and sat down, drumming his fingers on the table as he pondered.

“I’m thinking rabies. Shouldn’t be too hard to get my hands on a decent sample…”

The guys looked at each other, then Ryan suspiciously.

“Mix it with the flu for some sweet airborne transmission – make sure you plan to aerosolize it just before the flu season – it’ll be best for transmission and increase the likelihood of mutations making it harder to treat. Mix in some measles virus and you could get personality changes if the infection sustains for a few weeks – not sure how attenuated the rabies would have to be for that to happen – might be too quick,” Ryan mused to himself more than any of the others now as their faces all fell into looks of genuine concern and confusion.

“An encephalitis virus would give a lovely fever to cook the brain if the measles was too slow… ooh and leprosy would just be perfect for the appearance, though that’s unlikely to lend itself to any form of manipulation, not that I could get my hands on it anyway. Now, if I could get my hands on Ebola… _well_ … I mean that’d do on its own, but in this mix, it’d lend a nice dimension of gastrointestinal haemorrhaging – bleeding from the guts – unpleasant on its own and downright torturous when combined with the other symptoms. That would ensure lethality and increase post-mortem infectivity and shedding. Depending on the virulence of the flu strain, that could knock out a large chunk of the population fairly rapidly…” He hummed and nodded, “That’d work well I think, yes.”

The room had gone dead silent.

“What?”

Ryan finally looked up to five open-mouthed faces staring back at him in abject horror.

“Oh… you meant _surviving_ the zombie apocalypse?”


	12. Raven

Geoff plonked himself down on the bar stool of the Off Topic set and cracked the tab on his soda. “This fucking Raven man,” he began with a sigh as he shook his head, “let me tell you what happened last night…”

“What happened last night, Geoff?” Jack asked on cue.

“So I was reading this book – _great book_ –”

“Yeah? What was the book?” Michael asked.

“Not important-” Geoff dismissed.

Michael pulled a confused face.

“You just said it was a great book…” Ryan sounded as confused as Michael looked.

“It is! Great book. Not important,” Geoff went on, “and I was falling asleep when I heard this noise… this _tapping_ noise that sounded like someone was knocking at the door. So I got up to check and not a fucking soul was there. So I thought ‘fuck it’ and went back to reading and a few minutes later, there it was again, this fuckin’ tapping noise. And I swear to god it’s someone at the door, so I get up to look again and I stick my head out the door and nothing! So I call out, ‘who the fuck’s knocking?’ but no one answers. So I think: _that’s weird_ and I try to ignore it, but a few minutes later again, it comes back. Now this time I’m sure it’s something but it’s at the window, so I open the window and sure as shit a fuckin’ bird flies in. Big ass raven.”

Ryan burst out laughing.

“Dude, I am dead serious, this thing goes right to the top of my bookshelf and makes himself at home. Wouldn’t fucking budge. Just kept staring me down. It was fucking freaky.”

“Geoff, are you perchance a reincarnation of Edgar Allen Poe?” Ryan asked, raising an eyebrow.

Geoff scoffed, “I mean, if I am, I can tell you one thing… I sure as shit don’t miss my former Lenore.”

The others laughed.

“What’d you do about the raven?” Jack asked.

Geoff grinned sheepishly, talking into his drink, “I may have uh… shot it with a BB.”

“Geoff!” Jack cried, shocked.

“I didn’t kill it,” Geoff was quick to clarify, “just wanted to scare it off. Motherfucker wouldn’t move!”

Ryan laughed, “you know he’ll remember that, right?”

“ _The raven will remember that_ ,” Michael repeated, mocking the repeated line from the Tell-Tale games.

“Sure…” Geoff rolled his eyes.

“No, I’m serious, Ravens are super smart and social birds, don’t be surprised if there’s a murder on your front lawn when you get home.”

“I like the way when Ryan says that, it sounds vaguely threatening,” Michael smirked.

“Well, I mean…” Ryan trailed off, leaving the rest to the other’s imaginations.

Jack had been looking at his phone, “oh, apparently, Ryan, a flock of ravens is called an ‘unkindness’ or ‘conspiracy’ – according to …Dmitri.”

“That wouldn’t happen to be my mod, would it?”

Jack checked his phone again and laughed, “uh, yep.”

Ryan just shook his head, “figures. Whatever, close enough. Geoff can expect something on his lawn tonight.”

Michael giggled, “Again, still vaguely threatening…”

Geoff shook his head, “You guys are really overthinking this one.”

~

Later that day, Geoff had largely forgotten about the conversation – and the raven if he was honest – and he drove home through the usual Austin traffic, pulling into his driveway as the sun was starting to set.

No fewer than 20 ravens were perched all over his front lawn, waiting for him.

_“God dammit.”_


	13. Vore

For today's story, you'll have to check out my post on [Tumblr](https://dmitrimolotov.tumblr.com/post/166353216913/day-13-vore). ;)


	14. Shapeshifting

Gavin leaned in close to Michael, “Do you think Jeremy’s been acting strange today?”

“Strange?” Michael glanced over his shoulder at Jeremy as he left the room, “How so?”

“I dunno…” Gavin’s brow furrowed, “just _odd_. He was calling Geoff ‘Geoffrey’ – and not in the robot golf way, _and_ he ignored Ryan’s call of ‘Battle Buddies’ before… that’s weird.”

Michael shrugged, “maybe he’s just tired? He said he was streaming pretty late last night… or maybe he’s trying a new bit?”

Gavin frowned, “yeah, I guess…”

The day was scheduled to be packed with filming and Jeremy snuck off to the bathroom before they loaded up the next game. Jack followed him, taking the opportunity for a break.

They’d been waiting for some time before Jack came back.

“Where’s Jeremy?” Gavin asked.

“He’d better be fuckin’ coming back,” Geoff added.

Jack paused, cocked his head sideways for a moment, looking confused.

“He feeling alright?” Ryan asked, “He streamed late last night, wasn’t sure if he was up to being here.”

Jack seemed to suddenly snap himself out of it, “yeah, must be it.”

“So, we going on without him or what?” Geoff asked.

He was met with silence.

“I’m gonna take that as a yes,” Michael filled in.

Gavin was still uneasy. Now Jack was acting weird. _Probably._

The day went on and Jack went out for… _something…_ But shortly after Geoff started acting strange.

“Am I losing my mind? Does no one else notice this?” Gavin asked Ryan.

“Nah, just you.” Ryan laughed, grabbing another diet coke from the fridge.

Gavin frowned, “Michael, have you noticed anything?”

“I mean… Kinda? Maybe.” Michael shrugged. He pulled a face and glanced at the time, “got time for a play’ps? Trevor said he had some weird ass game for us, we should give it a go.”

Ryan stood up and stretched, “alright, well if you guys are right to film and Geoff’s not back yet, I’m gonna head over to the Know office, I’ll be back when I’m back.”

Michael went to the support office to sort out whatever the game was and Gavin took a minute to take a breath. He was imagining things, surely. _Where was Geoff?_

The keypad made him jump and he spun around to see Ryan standing there.

“That was quick,” Gavin said, still flustered.

“What?” Ryan looked confused.

“Change your mind or did you run into them on the way o…ver…?” Gavin looked up to see Ryan’s face – he was struggling to process the information as if it was in another language.

A chill ran down his spine.

“I’m just gonna go see… if Michael needs any hep setting up.”

He skirted past Ryan and almost ran to the support room, dashing into the room and closing the door behind him.

“Michael, it got Ryan!”

“Calm down Gavin, what do you mean it got Ryan. What is it?”

“I don’t know Michael, but Ryan came back and now he’s acting weird too and Geoff went out and he didn’t come back and I haven’t seen Jack since he went to lunch and Jeremy left just after Jack followed him to the bathroom… there’s a pattern, Michael!”

“Are you feeling ok Gavin?”

“Something strange is happening. It’s weird and I don’t like it.”

“Are you gonna be good to film this? It’s the last thing I wanna do today.”

Gavin looked worried, “as long as it’s just you and me in this room – I think so.”

“Ok good, I’m just gonna go grab my headphones, I’ll be right back, ok?”

Gavin’s stomach flipped but he didn’t want to seem too paranoid, so he nodded and waited.

Michael came back in just a few minutes. Not long enough to be suspicious and Gavin relaxed.

“Last one ok, Gav?”

“Ok Michael.”

He put on his headphones and shook it off, mentally preparing himself for one more last recording.

“Last one, ok?”

“Michael?”

“Last one…” His voice distorted and Gavin’s skin crawled.

Gavin looked back at Michael, staring face to face with not Michael, but Jeremy.

“What’s the matter, Gavin?”

Before his eyes, Jeremy’s features morphed, stretched and changed into Jack, then Geoff.

Gavin rubbed his eyes, not trusting he wasn’t somehow hallucinating, “Michael?”

Geoff stared back at him, cocking his head, “something wrong Gavvers?”

Gavin screamed, but was frozen in horror.

Geoff’s features distorted, melting away from recognizable, through horrific, then back to recognizable, “It’s ok, it was always going to happen eventually.”

Gavin backed up as Ryan’s form now loomed over him, maniacal laughter hardly echoing in the recording room as Gavin’s terrified screams died away and were replaced with soft lilting giggles.

Achievement Hunter were never seen again.


	15. Masks

“Ooh, someone sent us this creepy box of Halloween stuff,” Michael rifled through the box, “Cool, check it out! Ryan, you’re gonna love this!”

Ryan’s ears pricked up at his name and he stalked over to the box Michael had opened. Inside were six creepy-looking old masks. “Ooh,” he mused, pulling an ornately carved wooden mask from the box, “it’s got some weight to it.” He ran a hand over the carvings of the meticulously detailed horns that spiralled from the forehead. “this is cool. This one’s mine.”

“Figured you’d want the demonic one,” Michael said, rolling his eyes.

The others dug through the masks, singling out the ones that most appealed to them. Jack picked the one adorned with carved plants and flowers; Michael picked the one that looked like a snarling bear’s head, Geoff went for the most plain design, a simple hockey-mask looking one, Gavin’s had swirling geometric patterns and Jeremy’s was like a gas mask or plague doctor’s, with a long beak-like nose.

Trevor had been flitting about the room while they went through the box, Michael pulling a fistful of black fabric from below the packing peanuts and pulling it apart in from of them. He untangled the mass of clothes and held one up against himself for the others to see.

“Aww sweet, we got robes!”

He distributed the robes.

“Put ‘em on, I wanna take a picture,” Trevor urged.

The guys looked around at each other, not entirely unwilling, but reserved at the idea.

Geoff shook his head, “alright…” He muttered, pulling the cloak on over his clothes. The others followed suit, donning their robes and forming a loose conspiratorial circle.

“Oh, that’s perfect!” Trevor said, seeing the design and hopping into the middle of the circle.

He had his phone out, “I’m gonna go live, you guys all put on your masks and start chanting…”

“What should we chant?” Geoff asked.

“Whatever comes to mind, just go.”

Geoff shrugged and pulled down his mask, again the others all following suit in turn.

Trevor went live on his phone and started slowly rotating with the camera in the centre of the circle, filing all the masks one by one as he passed the. Slowly, they all began to chant. It was utter nonsense to start with, but as he spun, they became eerily synchronised getting louder and more intense and suddenly Trevor felt his knees buckle.

The camera dropped to the ground, rolling to a stop at a pair of sneaker-clad feet, just enough of Trevor visible in the corner of the view to see the fountain of blood spout forth from his eyes and nose and mouth as he clutched desperately at his chest and then collapsed in a heap.

 

The video earned over a million views that day.


	16. Maze

If he kept his hand on the wall and followed it, he’d eventually end up at the exit. He learned that from Cardcaptor Sakura. Not that he was planning on telling the others that… If he ever found them.

“How big did they build this fucking thing?” he wondered aloud, turning down yet another seemingly endless corridor of painted plywood.

The maze had been constructed for ExtraLife and people had been nominated to run it throughout the stream. He wasn’t sure how many had gone in before him, but he knew he wasn’t alone in it. It had been painted up in different sections to reflect the different parts of the stream. There was a part for animation done up with RWBY, RvB, Camp Camp and RTAA motifs, there was an AH section, a Let’s Play extended family section, Funhaus probably had a section, but he hadn’t come across it yet. He was currently wandering the “2Spooky” section. It was painted up with ghosts and bats and that creepy skull thing Blaine had in years past. It was unsettling to say the least. He passed the section, mercifully, and rounded a corner to be greeted with a completely black corridor that had a part roofed so the entire hallway was enclosed. It was pitch black inside.

He squinted into the darkness with a scowl. Probably a fucking jumpscare part. They probably set up an infrared camera inside to catch it all. He debated how he was going to play it. Gotta at least make it seem genuine. Just let yourself get scared. Relax, don’t even worry about it.

He wandered into the darkened hallway and immediately tripped over something solid, but soft, pliable and warm. He got slightly tangled in it as he tried to catch himself and stumbled forward. He landed with a thump on the ground, hitting his knees first, instinctively throwing his arms out to catch himself, despite knowing better. He fished his phone out of his pocket and switched on the flashlight function, waving it over the offending object.

In this case, a body.

He shrieked and jumped back, pressing against the wall of the tunnel, which felt slightly damp. He tried to regain his composure, taking a few deep breaths and looking around for the recording equipment.

“Alright, you got me!” He called out, “You got me real good… You fucks gonna come get me out now? … No? Nothing? Fine, fuck you then. Guess I’ll just keep going.”

He paused as the flashlight of his phone flooded over the body, the pool of blood surrounding it looking suspiciously legit.

“Oh, and make sure to tell Marcus he did a fuckin’ great job on the bodies in here, really – ten outta ten.” He laughed as he kept moving, starting to feel the press of claustrophobia, keeping his left hand on the wall and the light from his phone out in front of him. He wasn’t about to miss a potential turn in the dark. The wall to his left dropped away suddenly.

“I knew it, you fuckers! Hiding the exit in the dark!” He felt around for where the wall continued to, expecting a door, but it was another hallway, again, in pitch darkness with no end in sight.

He sighed and shook his head, they’d really put some effort into this one.

Ahead of him he heard a noise. A shuffling and something making quiet wet smacking sounds. _Was someone eating in here?_ He pressed forward, squinting into the light cast by his phone as he came across a figure clad in black, hunched over in the middle of the hallway, it’s back to him.

He could hear the sounds more clearly now, it was definitely eating something. It sounded almost like a dog with a bone…

“Hey! Have you found the way…” He trailed off as the figure glanced over its shoulder at him. The face wasn’t human. Its skin was grey and pallid, eyes large, bugging and red, no iris or pupil to be seen, just red orbs set into the skeletal face.

Michael froze.

It was a trick, a costume, made up by the art department, they were too talented for their own good sometimes. Still, he couldn’t find the will to move.

The creature was holding a large bone, it had clearly been gnawing on it before he arrived, the remaining skin on the flesh coating it looking eerily familiar. The creature turned away from its meal to face him and Michael got a glimpse of where the bone had come from – Matt’s lifeless form, dismembered and bloody in pieces in front of it.

Michael gagged. He nearly threw up on the spot, but swallowed it as the creature bared it’s teeth in a monstrous, bloody smile, chunks of flesh clinging to the shark-like teeth in rows in its mouth.

“Oh fuck!”

Michael didn’t care if it was a clever trick, he ran as fast as his legs could carry him in the opposite direction, sprinting through the corridors, stumbling in the dark.

Behind him, a terrifying noise followed, the gangly-limbed figure easily keeping pace with him, its footfalls echoing in contact with the ground as if bone were striking it. The next step, Michael’s heel struck liquid, slid out from under him and he collapsed right on top of the body he’d tripped over earlier. It was still warm. His phone had flown from his hand, sliding across the ground and coming to rest against the opposite wall. The glow from the light barely reached him, but it was enough for him to make out what was left of Alfredo’s face staring blankly back at him.

This time, he screamed.

The clack of bony footsteps in the darkness slowed. Michael scrambled backwards, unable to make out anything other than shapes in the darkness, until his back hit plywood.

Dead end.

The clack grew louder and glowing red orbs filled his vision, shortly joined by rows upon rows of sharpened, bloody teeth and hot, foul breath.


	17. Possession

Gavin had fainted at lunch time. He’d folded down on himself, so the impact with the floor wasn’t so bad, still, the guys had rolled him onto his side and called emergency straight away. Before the call connected, Gavin stirred, rubbing his eyes and face as he awoke.

“Careful Gav, take it slow, you fainted,” Michael explained.

Gavin looked confused, “That’s weird, I feel fine. I actually feel really good.”

Jeremy and Ryan looked at each other and Michael looked around at the others for an indication of what to do.

Jeremy hung up the call, but didn’t put his phone away just yet.

“Really, I feel great, I don’t think there’s anything to worry about. But if it happens again or if I suddenly get sick or sleepy, _then_ we’ll call the ambulance, yeah?”

Ryan scowled, paternal instincts taking over, “just take it easy, ok? Get some food into you just in case and make sure you drink something.”

“Yes Dad,” Gavin grinned back at him.

“Don’t make me put you in time out.”

“I’ll be fine, thanks though, I have no idea what happened.”

“That’s the worry,” Jeremy muttered under his breath.

Gavin was fine for the rest of the day until about 4 pm when Michael looked over at him to see him staring, unseeing at the monitor in front of him with nothing on it.

“Gavin, you ok there, bud?”

Gavin didn’t flinch.

Instead, he stayed deadly still and spoke. The words were like someone had turned on a faucet full blast. They came fast and hard and there was no way to tell what the words where.

The language sounded archaic and the voice didn’t sound like Gavin’s at all, deep and gravelly.

“Whoa, what the fuck?” Michael said, taken aback and not sure what to do.

“He’s speaking in tongues!” Jack pointed out as the others watched on in horror.

“Gavin?” Geoff’s voice was tinted with concern as he took off his headphones and got up to check on him, Ryan and Jack standing to look over their monitors instead, Jeremy following Geoff and Michael way ahead of them, already right next to him, but not sure what to do.

“That’s not like Gavin,” Jeremy commented.

Michael gently squeezed his shoulder, “Gavin, snap out of it.”

Geoff waved a hand in front of Gavin’s face, eliciting no change. “I’m calling an ambulance,” he said, plucking his phone from his pocket.

“Good idea,” Ryan added, “it might be a neurological thing, make sure to tell them about the fainting before too.”

Geoff nodded and was about to open his mouth to speak to the operator when Gavin’s hand shot out and snatched the phone from him, cracking the screen in his grip before completely crushing the phone.

“What the fuck?!” Michael and Jeremy cried out in almost-unison.

“Jesus…” Jack muttered.

Ryan already had his phone out and punched in 911 to try again.

Gavin’s head snapped around to him and Ryan noticed his pupils had blown out, the entirety of his irises were almost entirely pupil and looked impossibly large. He hadn’t stopped speaking since he started, but now it was less erratic and more like chanting. He saw Ryan put the phone to his ear and suddenly sprung to his feet on his chair, coiled like a snake and jumped over the monitors at Ryan, hitting him with his full body weight and sent them both heavy to the ground. Ryan’s head struck the bookshelf on the way down, hard enough to leave a gash in his scalp that bled horrifically into the carpet. He was dazed and temporarily down for the count.

As soon as Jeremy saw what happened, he leapt to Ryan’s defence, running around the desks to get to Gavin. Jack stood shocked, not sure whether to help Ryan or try to take on Gavin. Gavin turned his attention to Jack first, grinning as he continued his incantations. It looked like his skin was crawling, veins beneath the skin appearing dark and pulsing, his skin pale and sickly by comparison. His eyes were almost completely black and his lips were tinted blue. Jack instinctively took a step back.

Jeremy launched himself at Gavin, wrapping his arms around him, pinning Gavin’s arms to his sides and kicking one of his legs out so he couldn’t get a stable stance to fight back.

Geoff and Michael watched on from the other side of the room, Michael now going for his phone. Gavin only seemed to fight harder when he saw it.

“Michael – outside! Go!” Geoff instructed, noticing Gavin’s change, seeing Jeremy struggling to hold him.

Michael looked at Gavin, Geoff, then the door and reluctantly went for it. Geoff went to help Jeremy contain Gavin and Jack checked Ryan, not letting him get up straight away.

Jeremy was struggling and Geoff wasn’t much help.

“What do we do with him?” Jeremy asked, grunting with the effort of holding him still.

“Get the duct tape,” Jack suggested, “If he can’t move his arms he can’t hurt himself… or any of us.”

Geoff went to fetch the duct tape, hoping the paramedics would know what to do when they arrived.

Michael came back in, “they’re coming, they said not to move Ryan-”

“Tough shit,” Ryan muttered, getting up and pressing a hand to the wound on his head.

“Alright… they’ll be here in a few minutes. They said to lay Gavin down and try to restrain him if possible.”

“Working on that part,” Jeremy said as Geoff ripped a strip of tape and they started wrapping Gavin’s arms, being careful not to make them too tight.

“What the fuck is wrong with him?” Michael asked, shaking his head and stepping back to be out of the way, knowing he wasn’t doing much to help at the moment.

Ryan sank into his chair, having the same idea of staying out of the way, “He’s possessed.” He meant it jokingly, but the more he looked at Gavin, the sudden changes that had overcome him – the creepy other-worldly chanting, the way he’d crushed the phone, his fucking _eyes_ – the more plausible it seemed.

Gavin continued to fight and chant and snarl, at one point even trying to bite Michael when he got too close, until the paramedics arrived. As soon as they opened the door for them, Gavin went limp, unconscious and unresisting. They explained the entire scenario to them as best they could, the paramedics asking the obvious questions: was he on or known to take any illicit drugs or substances? Has he ever had a reaction to any medication? Does he have a history of neurological disorders?

They answered as best they could and a now thankfully unconscious Gavin was cut out of the tape bonds, under the suspicious glare of the paramedics.

“It really was necessary,” Jeremy assured them.

They didn’t seem convinced.

Ryan removed his hand from the wound so one of the medic could inspect it. He was informed it would need stitches, but he could ride with them to the hospital. One more was welcome to go with them. Michael volunteered.

Jeremy slumped, exhausted into his chair and lay back, shutting his eyes.

They took Gavin and Ryan out of the room, Michael following close behind. As Gavin left, Jeremy’s head slumped, as if he’d fallen asleep momentarily.

“That was fuckin’ weird,” Jack said, looking to Geoff.

Geoff shook his head, “Still probably not the weirdest thing to happen to me while I’ve been working for Rooster Teeth.

Jack laughed.

Suddenly, Jeremy jerked, as if shocking himself awake.

His eyes were wide and black, his grin sadistic and his voice unnatural, “you were saying…?”


	18. Silent

The radio signal had been getting progressively worse, Jeremy was straining to hear Ryan over the static and it was getting nearly impossible to hear the instructions for diffusing the bomb. Despite Ryan only being in the room down the hall, the radio was still a bad idea, he wished they’d just given up on it, but everyone decided that it was best to keep the continuity and add a layer of difficulty. It’d be too easy otherwise, besides, Ryan had wanted to keep their Battle Buddies stuff separate from Tea Party stuff. With a subtle hint of wishful thinking, Jeremy thought he’d detected a note of jealousy too.

At any rate, they’d swapped roles in the bomb squad and Ryan was now the one with the instruction manual in the VR room. His instructions were not the best and the radio was making it worse.

The timer on the bomb hit 0 and it “exploded”. Again. After the obligatory condolences for the content, Jeremy added, “…Ryan, we should’ve just done it in VR and forgotten about the radio.”

The line was inexplicably clearer as he said it.

“One more try,” Ryan pressed, “It sounds better now, see if we can get something usable. Then we’ll give it a go in VR without he radio.”

Jeremy sighed, “Yeah, ok. One more.”

“One more,” Ryan repeated, “Alright, what’ve we got?”

Jeremy sighed and ran through the puzzle modules. The first one was simple – Morse code. Jeremy was remarkably good at reading Morse code, so he read the sequence of dots and dashes and Ryan matched them to the words with little trouble. Simon says was a similar story. The number puzzle they had a system for already and while tedious and thwarted by the radio a few times, was reasonably straight-forward.

They got to one of the wires puzzles, the timer was down to the final two minutes and they only had the push-button puzzle to solve after this one, there was a good chance they could make it if Ryan could figure out the complicated Venn diagram puzzle quickly enough.

“Alright Ryan, we have wires, vertical with stripes and stars and LEDs, this is the Venn diagram one.”

There was a pause as Ryan shuffled through the manual to find the page, “ok, got it what do you see?”

“We have a blue and red striped one with a star, no LED.”

There was another pause as Ryan looked through the information.

“Uuuuummmm… Does the bomb have a parallel port?” Ryan asked.

Jeremy had already turned the bomb over and over, he knew the answer without looking, “Yeah!”

“Alright, cut it.”

“Good! Next, we have red and white stripes, star, no LED.”

Ryan paused again and static cracked through the radio, “…it!”

“Cut it?”

“Yeah, cut it,” Ryan confirmed.

Jeremy cut the wire and nothing happened, so he moved to the next wire, only two to go, then the button puzzle, 60 seconds remaining. They could maybe still do this, but it’d be down to the wire. Literally.

“Ryan, we got one minute man, this one’s plain white, no star, no LED, what do I do?”

He was met by a loud buzz of static.

“Repeat that last one?”

Static crackled back at him.

“I’m gonna cut it!” He knew the game well enough to know that this was a wire he should cut, and the final wire he could guess to cut if the puzzle wasn’t cleared immediately. He cut the wire and the light didn’t come on. “I’m cutting the last wire!” He cut it and the puzzle cleared. “Woo! Last puzzle Ryan, we got this! It’s a big white button that says ‘Press’, do I press it?”

The radio just buzzed static back at him.

“Ryan? Go again buddy, I can’t hear you.”

No reply from Ryan.

“Ryan? Can you hear me? I’m getting nothing but static on my end – maybe the batteries are go-” As he said it, the static cut out completely and the radio fell silent. Not completely silent; not silent in the not-working-at-all sense, but silent as if someone were holding down the button and not saying anything. Silent as if someone were holding their breath.

“Ryan?”

The bomb exploded and Jeremy was startled out of it.

“Welp, we fucked that one up, I’m coming down, I’ll help you set up VR… Don’t even know if you can hear this…” He gave up talking to the radio and wrapped up at his station, grabbing a can of diet coke from the fridge for Ryan as he left the office.

He pushed open the door to the VR room and at first, he thought it was empty. Perhaps Ryan had gone to the bathroom or something. He was about to turn to leave when he saw it.

A bloody, human body lay on the ground, but it wasn’t immediately recognizable as Ryan. It barely looked human though, it looked … _wrong_. It was about Ryan’s size, but as Jeremy took a step closer, he realized why it looked wrong. It had been skinned. What Jeremy was looking at was the bare flesh of his friend. Blood was still spewing in spurts from a slash in his chest – tiny bubbles of air collecting in it as his chest rose and fell in spasms. It took Jeremy’s brain a second to catch up to the observation, utterly refusing to believe it.

_He was still alive._

Jeremy dropped everything and ran to his side, no idea what to do, feeling utterly helpless in the face of such extensive injury. He dialled 911 on his phone, but could hardly fathom what they might be able to do to help. Drawing nearer he could see Ryan’s eyes – unmistakably Ryan’s clear blue – darting around the room. They fixed on Jeremy for just a moment and he opened his mouth to speak, but only blood came out and he hacked, trying to catch a breath and failing, only drawing more blood into his already collapsing lungs.

“Ryan! It’s ok, I’m gonna get help, it’ll be ok…” Jeremy clutched his phone desperately as it rang, the operator taking their time to pick it up.

Ryan’s eyes again darted around the room, this time settling, terrified, on something just behind Jeremy. He barely managed to raise his hand to point.

A sense of dread overcame Jeremy as he slowly turned to follow Ryan’s gaze.

A slow drawl of “911, what’s the nature of your emergency?” finally came through the phone.

The only response the operator received was a bone-chilling scream before the line went silent.


	19. Hell

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> This chapter is very graphic. Obvious religious imagery. May contains flesh-eating demons... I'm sensing a theme.

Ryan would’ve laughed at the irony of wearing his ‘Satanic’ achieve t-shirt that day had he known what he’d be in for.

Of course, it had been a car. He was cursed by cars, figured it’d be what killed him. He wasn’t even in one at the time. He just hadn’t seen it as it careened around the corner, speeding, tyres losing traction on the road as it collected him from the sidewalk. The force of the impact shattered bone, ruptured his spleen and as the body of the car wrapped around a telephone pole, he was launched backwards into the brick wall he’d been passing, splitting his skull and leaving him barely clinging to life while panicked witnesses called for help.

There was no helping him. His soul was already riding that infernal elevator down. Not that he was yet aware of this fact.

The next thing Ryan knew, he was being roughly shackled at the wrists and ankles; iron manacles clasping tight around his limbs, already scraping the skin where they contacted. He was stretched spread-eagled until he felt his joints pop under the strain. His weight was fully taken up in his wrists as he was suspended in mid-air, his feet being raised behind him, so that he was facing down as he was gradually swung out over a deep, glowing red pit. Inside the pit, four-legged creatures roamed the floor while smoke billowed up from the magma below. Each plume of smoke contained exactly one tortured soul, suffering all alone.

All around him he could hear the screams of millions of damned souls, but their company was meaningless, because he intrinsically understood that he was by himself and that this would last for eternity. He wasn’t a religious man- well, he hadn’t been in life, but he was certain of the fact that he was in hell. His torture came with a level of acceptance, of resignation; this was how it was and always would be. It did nothing to lessen the pain and torment, but it spared him some of the struggles of fighting it. The heat from the pit roasted his flesh slowly, he could feel it bubble and blister, even though, blinded by the heat and smoke, his eyes no longer worked to see the damage. His shoulders had dislocated from their sockets under his own weight and he’d begun to suffocate under the strain of the position and muscle fatigue in his diaphragm. The act of simply breathing was now killing him. He didn’t fear death. On the contrary, he welcomed it, but he feared… no, he _knew_ , it wasn’t an option here. There was no escape.

A team of grotesque, monstrous demons had been moving throughout the pits, finally selecting his. As they drew nearer, Ryan could see their faces were simply mouths, capable of unhinging jaws, exposing rows and rows of serrated sharklike teeth or grotesque canine-like elongated snouts, sharp fangs made for tearing flesh from bone… living flesh. These were the piranhas of the underworld. Eternally hungry, moving from pit to pit to feed on the flesh strung up and roasted in offering, never able to satiate their salivating forked tongues.

They approached Ryan, consumed him- tore strips of skin from fat and muscle, sunk their fangs into his flesh and stripped his bones bare, leaving only his bare, bleeding carcass over the pit as he howled in pain, tears drying on the remains of his cheeks over the heat of the pit. The demon’s tongues flicked over them, savouring the salt as if it were a delicacy, while another pried Ryan’s own tongue from his mouth, before chewing it clean off out of his head, leaving a sticky trail of blood and saliva dribbling from Ryan’s gaping, open face.

Just as he thought they were done with him – there was nothing more they could take and they were licking clawed fingers and belching hot gas, his flesh began to regrow. The feeding resumed, the demons ravenously devouring him afresh.

Ryan lost count of how many times he endured it. Eventually, the mob moved on and Ryan was left to his original torment in isolation. It felt like it went on for weeks, months… with no day or night, just the darkness of the cave above him and the red glow of the pits beneath, he couldn’t tell. He drifted in and out of whatever passed for consciousness, but every moment was agony, suffering. Oddly, he never questioned it, his fate was sealed with some kind of trusting resignation, like he knew all along and somehow deserved it.

His salvation came in the form of a booming voice that seemed to come from inside his skull that simply announced, “It’s not your time.” Before a hand, large enough to completely enclose his body in its palm, came though the wall and pulled him out. Despite knowing this was his salvation, he also knew it was temporary. He would undoubtedly be back here someday. _Just not now._

Existence went black and serene for a moment before pain started again. But this wasn’t the same hot, sulphurous, burning pain he was so familiar with; this was new pain. Softer, muted by drugs and pillows and blankets. Familiar voices, bright light, not a red glow pushing into his vision as he slowly blinked open his eyes.

“Ryan?” A familiar voice said what he recognized as his name. He knew he should respond, but his body struggled to remember how. It would take some time before he could.

“You’ve been in a coma. Twenty seven days. It’s going to take some getting used to. Your body has been through a lot. Do you remember anything?”

Ryan remembered getting dressed and pulling on his ‘Satanic’ achieve t-shirt before heading out.


	20. Beasts

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Some violence against animals. Nothing they can't handle though.

The three heads snarled, teeth bared, almost frothing at the mouth as they snapped their yellowed teeth at Michael through the chain-link fence that stood between them. Ears pressed back against their heads, sleek black and tan fur shining in the soft glow of the afternoon sun, they began to bark; guttural growls followed by commanding short barks that set his teeth on edge despite the fence that separated them. Michael had always dreaded these beasts. The Doberman Pinschers had been placid dogs as long as he’d known them, but lately something had been off. He’d had half a mind to report it to someone, although he was uncertain as to who exactly he should contact. At least they couldn’t get out of the yard; in that respect they were secure and they weren’t going to do anyone any harm except the owner, likely the one whose fault it was for their behaviour change. Michael probably wouldn’t openly admit it, but they scared him. He kept imagining what it would be like if they got out, how powerful their jaws were, how likely they were to actually be carrying rabies… _dogs still carried rabies, right?_

At any rate, they made him uncomfortable and he jumped every time he passed them and they started barking and snapping at him. It was always a relief when he passed the house.

The next time he passed the house it was well into the evening. He wasn’t met by the usual scrabble of feet and chorus of terrifyingly loud barking and low growls as he passed, which was a relief. The dogs must be sleeping. _Good to know._ Maybe he should be late every day.

He was almost about to let out the breath he instinctively held waiting for the dogs to start barking, when a low growl came from behind him. Not from the other side of the fence.

Three pairs of gleaming yellow eyes shone in the darkness, teeth bared, jaws snapping in anticipation as they eyed up their target.

“Nice doggies…” Michael held out a hand pathetically as the trio growled again, short, sharp barks making him scramble backwards faster, trying not to trigger them into giving chase as he backed away… right into their fence.

The dogs closed in on him, snapping and growling and foaming at the mouth. One lunged at him and that seemed to be the cue for the others to follow. As if coordinated, they each lunged at him, snapping and barking, sending him scrabbling backwards at the fence. He kicked out at them, his foot connecting hard with the side of one’s head, only to have another latch onto his calf, powerful jaws and sharp teeth clamping down on his flesh as it shook its head to try to tear the meat from the bone. An agonized cry ripped from Michael’s throat as he tried desperately to get the animal off him. He gripped the fence behind him with both hands and kicked the dog in the face with his other foot, using the fence for balance. The dog let go and Michael barely twisted away as the other two snapped at him again, only grazing the denim of his jeans with their teeth. Michael panicked, needed to get away. He scrambled up the fence as best he could and threw himself down on the other side, panting. As long as the fence was between them, he was safe…

Keeping one eye on the dogs through the fence, he inspected his leg. The flesh had been shredded, hanging off him in strips where the dog’s teeth had dug in deep. It would need to be cleaned and stitched and it was going to hurt like a bitch, he could tell.

Just as he was starting to relax, the adrenaline wearing off, heavy footsteps approached him from behind. Michael didn’t want to take his eyes of the dogs, but the sense of dread that overcame him was too strong to ignore. Slowly, he turned around and craned his neck to look up at the impossibly large creature standing over him.

His blood ran cold.

Turns out the dogs weren’t the only beasts of the house.


	21. Monster

They always said it would rot his brain. Jeremy hadn’t believed them. Not until the day it started trickling out his ear.


	22. Darkness

Heroes and Halfwits had almost wrapped and Geoff waited for Jeremy to finish recording some of his bits as Ad Goblin Jr, giggling as Jeremy put on his unamused ad-read façade. The kid had come so far and brought a fresh humour to the group and Geoff was consistently impressed by what he managed to pull out of the bag. Geoff felt nothing but pride for him as he waited for them to wrap up and walk back to the Achievement Hunter office.

Geoff shook his head as Jeremy grinned and walked over, stripping off his lopsided helmet and furry vest.

“Every time man,” Geoff grinned back, “that shit just kills me.”

“Thanks, Geoff!” Jeremy accepted the compliment and grabbed one of the last kolaches off the table as they passed it, stuffing it in his mouth. Cheating a little, but he felt like it was acceptable.

A light in one of the rooms off to the side flickered. It was just enough to catch Geoff’s attention. It flickered again and went out as they passed. It sent a shiver through him and he instinctively sped up, Jeremy easily matching his pace without thinking about it.

Another room, another light, another flicker. Not a coincidence. Geoff walked faster.

“You right Geoff?” Jeremy asked, noting the change in pace.

Geoff looked shaken, “yeah,” he muttered, “just a thing… dumb thing.”

Jeremy pulled a face, “what kind of thing?”

“God, it’s gonna sound so stupid…” Geoff started, “you saw those lights go off, yeah?”

“Yeah? I mean, there’s a big storm outside, so the grid’s a bit messed up maybe?”

Geoff sighed, “probably… but there’s still this …thing. Superstition or whatever, but it _follows_ me.”

“It follows you?”

“You know how Gavin came up with the snail assassin thing?”

Jeremy nodded.

“That was after I told him about this. Light will just start turning off in storms, but they always follow me.”

“What happens when they catch up?” Jeremy asked, eyebrow raising.

Another light flickered off and Geoff visibly squirmed, “I don’t know… I’ve never let them catch up. I go for a drive.”

“In the storm?”

Geoff shrugged, “yeah.”

“That sounds more dangerous than staying. Especially in this weather.”

Geoff cringed, his stomach twisted at the thought of staying, but the rain had been hammering the building and Jeremy made a really good point, it was probably more dangerous leaving than staying. Besides, it was just a stupid superstition thing anyway, about time he got over it.

“You know what, Jeremy, you’re right. I’m gonna go back to the office and we’ll film something… probably. And if the power goes out, then that’s fate.”

Jeremy laughed, “well then we’re all of the hook.”

Another light flickered off in the hallway as they walked back to the office.

“You weren’t kidding, it really is freaky,” Jeremy said as he punched in the code to the door.

“No shit, right? I told you.”

The light in the hallway above them went out just as the door shut.

The lights in the office didn’t even flicker. Geoff went to his desk and sank into his chair, simultaneously relaxing and regretting his decision to return to work, because now he would effectively have to do work. He groaned and rubbed his face, closing his eyes and pressing his palms over them. With a sigh he slammed his hands down on his desk.

“Alright, let’s get to work…” He opened his eyes and the room was pitch black. “Oh no.”

“What’s that, Geoff?” Ryan asked.

The office was so dark with no lights on, he blinked a few times trying to get his eyes to adjust, “well, I guess we’re not doing work.”

“Wait, why?”

“Power, genius…”

“Power’s fine, Geoff?” Ryan said, “Are you ok?”

Geoff blinked again, eyes still struggling to adjust to the darkness, “don’t be a dickhead, Ryan. Turn the lights back on then.”

Jeremy’s voice was tight and concerned, “the lights are fine, Geoff. Can you… can you not see?”

Geoff’s stomach dropped.

“Jeremy, don’t fuck with me like this. Not even for content. Are you kidding?”

“I’m not kidding, Geoff.” Jeremy said quietly.

“He’s really not,” Ryan added.

Geoff could feel himself trembling, “I’m… I’m _blind_ …”

The darkness had finally caught up with him.


	23. Stalk

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for stalking and kidnapping.

Gavin had noticed the girl waving to them from across the parking lot as they walked back to the office after lunch. It wasn’t the first time he’d seen her.

“Who’s the girl?”

“I thought one of you knew her?” Ryan said, holding open the door to the building for the others and squinting to try to get a better look. He’d noticed her before too.

Michael’s eyebrows knitted together, “no, we assumed she was one of yours.”

Ryan visibly cringed, “Oh god, I hope not.”

“They’ve been out there every day for the last week.” Jack noted, “Before that it was every Wednesday for the last month. What the hell? Don’t they have anything better to do?”

“We should call security or something,” Gavin said, “Can’t have fans just showing up like that.”

“That’s not a fan, that’s a stalker,” Jeremy corrected.

“That’s fuckin’ _creepy_ is what it is…” Geoff said with a scowl.

Gavin frowned, “Someone should say something… I’m gonna go say something if she’s still there this afternoon.”

By that, Gavin meant he was going to _Tweet_ something:

“Someone has been hanging outside the RT/AH offices for days.  
This isn’t how to be a good fan. This is how to get a restraining order.”

Overnight, thousands of people liked, commented and retweeted it. There were debates about stalking and fanservice and the accessibility of the internet and what was and wasn’t public domain and a whole slew of tenuously related issues in the threads. It crossed platforms and spawned a hashtag: #GoodFansDontStalk. Gavin went to bed figuring that’d be enough to keep them away and deter any future stalker fans.

_He was wrong._

The next morning, Gavin received a text from Jeremy before he arrived at work: “She’s still there, watch yourself coming in this morning.”

Gavin saw red. He didn’t avoid her, he confronted her. She was tiny, unassuming, alone. All it would take was a stern word and a genuine threat of legal action. He wouldn’t hesitate to call the cops and follow through on a restraining order.

He stormed up to her.

She grinned at him, as if barely containing her glee.

“Alright love, what’s your game?” He asked.

“I’m sorry?”

“What the hell are you playing at? Firstly, you’re trespassing and secondly, do you have no common decency? How’s about you leave here before I get the police involved, alright?”

“Oh, I don’t think that’s necessary…” her grin morphed into something more nefarious and Gavin’s stomach fluttered. “All I wanted was some acknowledgement. Just a little bit of appreciation for all the hard work I’ve put in, all the effort I’ve gone to for you.”

Ok, now she was starting to sound crazy, he’d definitely have to get the police involved.

He shook his head and turned to walk away with the intention of ignoring her until the police came, “whatever love.”

“Thank you for making that tweet about me, by the way!” She called after him.

Gavin scoffed and threw a single glance backwards and caught movement out of the corner of his eye. The bat struck him in the side of the head and sent him sprawling, the world spinning and his ears ringing. His vision wouldn’t focus, but he felt large hands grab his ankles and drag him backwards. He twisted around to see a van had pulled up to the kerb.

“You see,” the girl went on, “your publicity helped me to find my friends here. They really don’t like internet bullying.”

Gavin tried to clear the haze in his brain by shaking his head, but it only made it worse. Soon he was bundled into the back of the van, the door slamming closed as the girl climbed in behind him.

“We would’ve been really good friends; best friends, I’m sure…” She sighed, “but I guess we’ll just have to enjoy the time we have left together, even though it won’t be very long.”

That was the last day Gavin was seen alive.


	24. Hiding

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Blood, injury.

“Point of view can make a huge difference to the way we view the world of video games. First person or third person perspective can dramatically influence our experience and our gameplay. Take the smash hit horror game, Dead by Daylight for example. In the game, the killer holds all the power, but they have a limited field of view in first-person, whereas the survivors have a wider-angle, third person view and are warned of the killer’s presence by the sound of a heartbeat that gets louder as the killer draws closer to them. But surely these perks wouldn’t be enough to escape a killer in real life… or would they?”

 

* * *

 

Michael, Gavin, Jeremy and Ryan were waiting inside the warehouse they’d built the set in. It looked terrifyingly like one of the Dead by Daylight maps, complete with hooks, obstacles and lockers to hide in. Just like in the game, the lighting was low and a thin cloud of smoke even wafted over the ground, pumped in by smoke machines for effect.

“Ok, this looks fucking awesome,” Michael said as they waited for Burnie to finish doing his bit outside and get to their introduction.

“I can’t wait,” Ryan said with a grin.

“Of course _you_ can’t wait,” Gavin commented, but Burnie returned before he could continue and the four of them stood there with smirks on their faces like school children caught talking about something inappropriate.

“Today our lab rats, Michael and Gavin will be joined by guest lab rats, team ‘Battle Buddies’, Jeremy and Ryan.”

“Battle Buddies!” Jeremy said and the pair high-fived as rehearsed.

Burnie smiled and went on, “But for this part, we only need Jeremy. Ryan, get out.”

“Aww…” Ryan dejectedly walked off set to get changed for the next part.

“Michael, Gavin and Jeremy will be playing the role of survivors. Now, in the game, survivors must work together to turn on a series of generators in order to open the door and escape a killer who is trying to sacrifice them to the ‘Entity’.”

“What exactly is the Entity?” Gavin asked.

Burnie shrugged, “some kind of spider god.”

“Alright then,” Michael said.

Burnie went on, “In the game, the killer’s view is limited by a first-person perspective. Today, Ryan will be playing the part of our killer.”

Ryan shuffled back onto the set in full costume, holding the killer’s trademark chains and machete, mask perched on top of his head. He gave a meek wave to the camera and a shy smile, “Hi!”

“Dammit,” Jeremy muttered, “Ryan, how could you?”

“How could I _not_? They gave me this cool machete,” he held the machete out enthusiastically.

“We’re gonna get annihilated.” Michael said flatly.

“Ryan, your job is to hunt down our survivors,” Burnie explained. “You won’t receive any extra perks-”

“He won’t need them!” Gavin cried.

Ryan grinned smugly.

“I should point out though, that our killer’s peripheral vision will also be limited by the mask.”

Ryan flipped down the mask; a terrifying mockery of a happy face carved into what looked like cracked wood stared back at the camera. The eyes were dark and soulless and it was instantly clear that Ryan was in character. His posture and movements changed and the lab rats all recoiled just a little bit.

“All good Ryan?”

Ryan nodded, slow and creepy and stalked off to his starting point in the set.

The lab rats shuddered.

Burnie turned back to them, “We’ve given you guys the advantage of third-person view and a heartbeat that will play through your earpieces to indicate when the killer is near. You’ll be able to see wide angle views of yourselves through a screen projected on these special glasses, but you’ll also still be able to see where you’re going. There will be lockers and long grass to hide in and obstacles you can use to slow down the killer’s pursuit. Just like in the game, you’ll have to find and repair generators to trigger the unlock mechanism for the door. Turn on four generators and the door will unlock, but if you get caught… you go on the hook.”

Burnie stepped aside a screen showing a pre-recorded video of Ryan throwing a “player” – Jon – over his shoulder and carrying him to a hook. Jon was wearing a jumpsuit the same as the lab rats which had a harness inbuilt and they could now see why, a loop at their back allowed them to be placed on the hook. As Ryan demonstrated with Jon.

“Once you’re on the hook, a teammate can get you down…”

The screen showed another player – Tyler – coming to Jon’s aide to lift him up and off the hook.

“But be wary…”

Ryan was lurking nearby and as soon as Tyler got Jon off the hook, Ryan grabbed him again and put him back up.

“If you go on the hook again, you’ll have a time limit to fight off ‘the Entity’…”

What looked like puppeteered spider legs came down to hang in Jon’s face, trying to press into him as he held them back.

“If you’re not rescued or fail to fight off the Entity within three minutes, or if you go on the hook a third time, it’s game over.”  

The puppet spike struck Jon’s chest and he hung limp, a big “Game Over” title dropping over the screen.

Burnie turned to the group cheerfully, “Think you can manage?”

The lab rats looked around at each other and pulled various faces of horror and uncertainty.

Burnie went on completely unconcerned, “I’m sure you’ll do just fine.” He clapped Gavin on the shoulder as he left.

 

* * *

 

Jeremy found it was surprisingly easy to become completely immersed in the game. Especially with the heartbeat in his ears. The fact that Ryan was completely silent as the killer, not at all the way he usually played the killer in the game – all taunts and sing-song – was even more terrifying and easy to forget it was him under the mask. Even his movements had become sharper, staccato, Jeremy found himself holding his breath as he watched a near-miss on the screen on his glasses, showing the killer just beyond the tree he was hiding behind. He pressed against it and ducked low, watching the killer stalk past him on the screen. Once he knew his back was turned, he quietly made his way behind the killer’s turned back to the generator that was around the corner. Michael was already working on it, Gavin wouldn’t be far away. Could make them a target, but repairs would go quicker, as long as they could just… His heartbeat picked up in his ears and he looked around, scanning around him as well as the wider-angle screen, but he saw too little, too late.

“Michael!”

The killer snuck up behind him and struck out, snatching Michael and hauling him over his shoulder, carrying him to the nearest hook.

Jeremy and Gavin alternated distracting the killer and attempting to get Michael down, but Michael ended up back on the hook. The third time, he was out.

Gavin was next to get nabbed. Plucked right up from the generator, ignoring the heartbeat and peripheral views. He was stuck on the hook unless Jeremy got him down. The killer was guarding him and the timer was ticking. Jeremy left Gavin to focus on the generators. It was a few minutes before the gong sounded, indicating Gavin lost his struggles with the Entity and Jeremy was the sole survivor.

Jeremy was the only one left. He only needed one more generator to work to escape. He knew it was only a matter of time before he was found and he clutched the screwdriver tighter. Movement in the wide-angle and the sound of his heartbeat in his ears alerted him to the killer’s presence and he dove for the locker, closing the door carefully behind him. In the glasses, he could see the outside of the locker, could see the killer pacing out the front of it, looking for him in the long grass and surrounding area, possibly not quite aware of the locker as a potential hiding spot yet. Jeremy wiped his palms one at a time on his pants, still holding the screwdriver like a lifeline. The killer rounded the locker again, and the heartbeat grew louder. Jeremy could see him right outside the locker, saw him reach for the handle and yank open the door.

Jeremy was on his feet in an instant. As the killer rounded on him, going to grab him and scoop his up, Jeremy thrust the screwdriver into his side, skin giving with an audible ‘pop’ against the impact of the sharp head of the tool. The killer stumbling forward and groaning in pain. Jeremy ran.

The killer let out a scream and it took a moment to register he wasn’t following him.

 _Of course he wasn’t following him._ He was Ryan.

Ryan staggered heavily into the locker and tore the mask off, gripping his side and grimacing in pain.

The crew panicked.

“Ryan!” Jeremy cried out, dropping character and running to his side, “holy shit, Ryan I’m so sorry.”

“Call an ambulance! First aid! Medics!” The cries went out and more people surrounded Ryan, a medic on set inspecting the wound and pressing gauze to it, holding it tight against his side.

“Jeremy, you shit,” Ryan just managed to splutter out, although he was grinning as though it was hilarious, “you stabbed me!”

“I’m so sorry Ryan, I didn’t mean to, I swear…”

Ryan coughed violently and it looked like it hurt a lot. Blood trickled from the corner of his mouth and the medic looked worried.

“Where’s that ambulance?”

“On the way.”

Michael and Gavin ran to Jeremy’s side. He looked so helpless, arms limp by his sides, staring down at Ryan as he lay on the ground surrounded by medics.

“Jesus Christ, Jeremy,” Michael muttered.

“I didn’t mean to… it just…”

Ryan coughed again. More blood. “Jeremy…”

“Ryan,” Jeremy’s face twisted with concern, “hang in there, Ryan... _Please_.”

“Ok… _Lil J_ …”

There were tears in Jeremy’s eyes as they loaded Ryan into the ambulance.


	25. Poison

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Warnings for death.  
> ...because we've reached the point where everyone dies.

“Do you ever wonder if a fan would send us poisoned food?” Jeremy asked Ryan as he opened another box for the stream, seeing it filled with Halloween-themed candy.

Ryan had just opened a bag of gummy worms and – hoping they weren’t sour – he stuffed a handful into his mouth, leaving them hanging out for dramatic effect as he turned around to face the webcam and answer Jeremy’s question.

“Hmph!” Was the noise that came out, along with several worms and drool.

Jeremy broke down in hysterics and Michael shook his head at the mess Ryan was making on the floor behind his desk.

He’d just cleaned up the damn office. Why’d he decide to clean _before_ the unboxing stream?

“I mean,” Michael shrugged, “if you wanted Ryan dead, sure.”

Ryan grinned, smug and self-satisfied through the slowly dissolving half-eaten gummies.

“I’m sure our fans would be more creative than rat poison in candy…” Jack said.

Ryan narrowed his eyes and shook his head sceptically, but didn’t stop eating the candy.

“I mean, they send us all these weapons, I think they really expect us to kill _each other_ ,” Trevor said, casually leaning his weight on a newly received sword that was almost as tall as Jeremy.

They laughed and continued opening packages, snacking on the open bags and boxes of candy along the way.

The stream ended and the group wrapped up, only Jack staying behind for a meeting that could of course, could only be scheduled after hours. Not that it bothered him in the slightest. It was a great cause and a community event and it always made him happy to be involved. It never failed to warm his heart the generosity of the community RT had. Sure, they could be little shits in the comment sections, hiding behind anonymity and googled answers; but when it came down to it, they were willing to give and that was something he’d always be proud of them for.

He opened a bag of peanut butter cups that had been addressed to them and popped one in his mouth while he waited, almost immediately regretting it and unscrewing the cap on his water to wash away the sickly sweet, nutty residue. The taste it left in his mouth was oddly bitter, but he thought nothing of it and started to load a game.

As the menu screen came up, something felt wrong.

He felt short of breath, trying to take deeper breaths, but only managing to gasp. His muscles twitched randomly, and he tried to physically shake it off. He felt hot and itchy but at the same time he realised he wasn’t entirely in control of his movement as his hands seized. He slouched back in his chair, convulsing as he gasped for breath and gripped his chest.

He felt everything. All his muscles contracted and relaxed and died bit by bit. His breathing became laboured and he felt himself suffocating as he couldn’t draw any more air into his lungs. His heart slowed and blood stopped pumping. Dark spots started to dance in his vision as everything faded to grey then black and then he felt nothing.

The autopsy report revealed he’d ingested a lethal dose of cyanide.


	26. Serial Killer

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Death!

Jack had fallen victim to a lethal poisoning. Not the first in the area it would seem. No link could yet be found between the victims, but the police suspected the first few may have been “practice”. The line of thinking was hesitantly: possible serial killer.

Police confiscated the food and all of the unopened packages sent in by fans. A full investigation was launched.

They promptly put a stop to all fan-sent consumables. All fan-sent _anything_. All their mail was screened. With all the stuff AH got sent, it could’ve been anyone and in anything.

…Except the police turned up no trace of cyanide in anything they’d confiscated.

There was a chance – a very slim chance – they explained, that it had been a single piece of candy that had been poisoned and it was a “game of roulette” rather than a deliberate attack. They didn’t have a motive or a suspect, so they really had little to go off. It did nothing to help the nerves of the remaining team.

In the short term, they did all they could do – they carried on.

They had enough team to keep making content. Geoff took leave – understandably – but the others did what they could where they could to keep things going. Trevor made sure everything was handled with sensitivity. The mood was significantly more sombre.

While Ryan and Jeremy discussed ideas for Battle Buddies they could do, at least Gavin and Michael had energy enough to film a Play Pals. Trevor suggesting some indie game title that had sounded like it might work for them. He stocked them with some alcohol and red bull and left them alone to film.

Jeremy knocked off early after Ryan told him to go home, volunteering to finish off whatever work Jeremy had left to do for the day. No one was surprised. Jeremy needed more time off but he was still pushing himself to produce. It wasn’t doing him any good.

Several hours later, Ryan decided he needed to rearrange his setup for no specific reason and needed cables from the other recording room. It wasn’t until he was at the door that he realized he hadn’t seen Gavin and Michael since they left to film the Play Pals. He vaguely wondered if they were still filming. _Wouldn’t be the first time he’d walked though their filming a Play’Ps_ , he figured.

He opened the door to find Michael and Gavin both death in their seats.

Trevor was standing over them.

“Wh…” Ryan was speechless, trying to take in the scene.

Trevor nearly jumped out of his skin.

“Ryan! Whoa! You uh…”

Ryan noticed Trevor was wearing gloves, holding two cans of Red Bull and not alarmed in the slightest by the dead bodies in the room.

“…you weren’t meant to see this part.”

“Are they…?” Ryan didn’t need to finish his sentence.

“Tragedy, yeah.”

“And _you_ …?”

Trevor gave a big false grin, and set down the cans, “’fraid so.”

“Wait, so, _Jack_? Those other people?” Ryan’s brain struggled to keep up, “That was all you?”

Trevor grinned again, “everyone’s gotta start somewhere. I had to test the cyanide, Ryan! You always gotta test it!”

“You poisoned a single candy hoping one of us would eat it?” Ryan’s eyebrows knitted together.

Trevor scoffed, “No! Then how would I know which ones not to eat?”

Ryan thought about it, Trevor had been grazing the candy with the rest of them that day.

“Geez, Ryan, it’s called plausible deniability… And you’re meant to be the smart one!”

“I poisoned his _water_ , then got rid of the bottle before the police found it. Much easier and it still looks like a fan did it,” Trevor explained.

Ryan looked at Gavin and Michael’s bodies, then to the cans of Red Bull. It was now clear Trevor was switching them out for ones with no trace of cyanide in them. His heart sunk at the thought of losing Michael and Gavin, but there were more pressing emotions creeping into his mind – fear and anger.  

“Trevor, what the fuck? How did you expect to get away with this? And _why_?”

Trevor held his arms out dramatically, eyes wide, “Maybe I’ve just lost my mind, Ryan.”

He really did look crazy. Ryan took a step back.

“But now _you_ know…” Trevor sighed deeply, frowning and shaking his head regretfully, “It was going to be so easy to pin it on you too… So _that’s_ a shame. Oh well.”

Ryan held both hands up defensively, “Whoa! Hey, trust me, you don’t wanna do this.”

“Well I _gotta_ now, Ryan! I can’t let you ruin everything!”

Ryan backed up, unsure of what Trevor had in mind to attack him with, but preparing to run as his frame nearly filled the doorway to the room. The door was open behind him and he felt a hand press into his back, nearly causing him to jump.

“Right behind you, buddy,” Jeremy whispered just loud enough for Ryan to hear.

Trevor lunged at Ryan, Ryan stepped aside to reveal Jeremy with the huge, fuck-off sword they’d received the previous week. Jeremy thrust it forward to lodge in Trevor’s ribcage, driven deeper by his own momentum.

Trevor looked down at the blade buried in his chest and shivered.

“Well shit.”


	27. Clowns

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Content warning for dolls, clowns and creep factor.

They had been wary of opening the suspiciously coffin-sided package that had been shipped without any identifiers or notes, but it was about time they cleared out the ever-growing pile of parcels that was slowly taking over their office.

“Before it becomes sentient and murders us all,” Ryan explained.

Jack and Ryan had taken to the unusually large box with their knives, slicing the tape and packaging away cleanly to reveal a simple wooden box, not entirely unlike a casket.

Ryan hesitated for dramatic effect, but Jack dived right in, prying the lid off and digging through the wormlike paper packaging to lift out a life-sized porcelain-faced clown doll.  

“Hey, who’s afraid of clowns?” Jack called though the room, holding the doll by the back of the neck to show it off.

“Or dolls?” Ryan added.

Michael visibly shuddered. “That’s creepy dude. “I… yeah, I can’t say I like it.”

Geoff took interest, “Is that like a promotional thing? Who’s that from? Is it for IT?”

Jack scowled and shook his head, “doesn’t say, there’s no note and no return address.”

Ryan tilted his head at it, smiling just as creepy and menacing as it was, “Aww, it’s kinda cute.”

“Only you would say that, Ryan,” Jeremy countered.

“Nah, Michael’s right,” Jack agreed, looking down at it properly, “it is fucking creepy. Look at its eyes.”

The eyes were hyper-realistic, dark and glassy; pupils just slightly too large and off-centre, making it impossible to tell where it was supposed to be looking. It was very unnerving to look at.

Geoff shuddered and looked away, “maybe we can use it in some content…?”

Ryan’s eyes lit up, “Oooh… Crash test dummy!”

Jeremy followed his line of thinking, “target practice!”

“Perfect!”

Michael held up both hands, “as long as I don’t have to be in the same room with it, knock yourselves out.”

“Same here,” Geoff agreed.

Over the next few days, Ryan and Jeremy took great delight in moving the clown to new locations and scaring the ever-loving shit out of the people around them. It even turned up in the bathroom one day and nearly made Geoff piss himself. Literally.

It made for great content, sure, but the office was getting sick of it and it had gotten to the point where Ryan wasn’t even doing it for content anymore, he was just messing with them.

The final straw came when Jeremy and Michael had been filming a Let’s Watch while Geoff and Jack were in meeting and Ryan was filming for the Know. Michael returned to his desk to find the fucking clown slumped in his chair.

He’d had enough, but he at least had the good sense to turn his anger into content.

“This fucking clown doll,” he ranted to the camera, showing it in his seat, “I’m sorry to whoever sent it in, but it’s become a weapon f terror in the hands of Ryan and Jeremy and they need to be stopped; so, it’s time for me to take out the trash.”

He wheeled the doll, still in his chair through the office and hallways, out to the parking lot and across to the large dumpsters.

“Welp, goodbye Perceval,” Michael addressed the clown by the name Ryan had given it, “you’re just way too fucking creepy for me.”

He blessed himself in mockery before roughly manhandling the doll into the dumpster to join the materials from the art department – various pieces of broken and former sets and old costumes (that didn’t fit anymore and couldn’t be recycled into Halloween costumes).

He dusted off his hands dramatically and wheeled his chair back to the office.

Ryan was just returning when he got back.

“I threw out the doll, just so you know,” Michael said nonchalantly.

Ryan pouted, “aww, why? Poor Percy.”

Michael rolled his eyes, “Why? You know exactly why. I asked you to stop and you didn’t, so I threw him out.”

“C’mon, I haven’t done that in ages! I’ve been good!” Ryan protested.

“Well, one of you fuckers put him in my chair between when Jeremy and I were filming that Let’s Watch and when you came back from the Know.

Ryan’s eyes narrowed, “I didn’t touch it. I promise I haven’t moved him.”

Michael glared at him.

“C’mon Michael, you know me; if I did it, I’d own up to it.”

He had a point. Ryan always owned up to his crimes unless they were planning for something bigger and more elaborate, although even then, that sounded like too much work.

“Maybe it was Jeremy then…” Michael mused, shaking his head, “Whoever it was it’s over now. Percy has been laid to rest in the dumpster.”

“Poor Perceval,” Ryan mumbled with a giggle.

Not long after Ryan had to take off. Geoff and Jack had been delayed in their meeting and would likely end up going straight home from there, while Jeremy had already left to prepare for some other show he was meant to be involved with for the evening. Michael was alone in the office.

He was glad he’d gotten rid of the doll. Being alone in the office with it would’ve been too much. It was by far the most unnerving thing they’d gotten in the mail.

Just… why a doll? Why a _clown_? Why did it have to be so damn huge and lifelike?

Eventually he shook off the thoughts of the doll, got some of his more admin-centric tasks out of the way and thought to call Lindsay before he left to go home.

Lindsay picked up on the second ring.

“Hey, it’s me.”

“’sup?” Lindsay answered so coolly.

“Nothin’, just about to head home and was wondering if you wanted anything from the store? Or I could pick up something for dinner on my way home?”

“I think we’re good for now, we got a couple of those frozen meals if I can’t be bothered cooking… which I’m starting to think might be the case…”

“Same,” Michael said with a sigh, “ok then, just thought I’d check, I’ll be home soon.”

“Oh, also –”  Lindsay added at the last second, “…I thought you hated clowns… why’d you bring home the fuckin’ creepy life-sized doll?”

Michael froze, lowering his voice, “What did you just say?”

Lindsay recognized the tone of Michael’s voice that suggested he wasn’t dicking around. “That creepy clown doll… you didn’t bring it home with you?”

“No…” The hair on the back of Michael’s neck stood on end, “...I threw it out today.”

“Uhhh… well, no. Because it’s in the living room.”


	28. Experiment

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> Death, blood and gore!

It was one of those rare days when everyone was in the office together at once. Things had been busy and chaotic and with so many events coming up in the next few weeks, it was going to be a while before everyone could be in the same room together again. They knew they needed to rack up some content, and they had known this day was coming, so it had been pre-scheduled – they even had a running order down and designated time for lunch breaks. Fortunately, everyone had come to work in good spirits and high energy that lasted through the morning. Lunch was a sorely needed distraction, but they didn’t leave the office for it, Steffie bringing their orders in for them.

After lunch, they began filming their next batch, complete with face cams and trialling capture with “room cam”. They’d done it before for livestreams, but Ryan and Jack had resurrected the idea to set up a webcam to capture the room as a whole regularly for when face cam wasn’t enough – like moments when _someone_ threw a tantrum, walking around the room assaulting boxes *cough* _Geoff_ *cough*. For the purpose of live streaming, Alfredo had made sure everything was connected and could be controlled remotely so streams could be fixed or adjusted on the fly and it seemed to be a functional system. So far.

They were playing through some GTA multiplayer maps that ran into the usual and foreseeable problem whenever online was involved, where random people would end up in their game. They succeeded in kicking most of them and Jack messaged the remainder to tell them to leave, but there was always that one persistent prick who wanted to make life difficult for them.

“Who’s this douchebag that won’t fuckin’ leave? KobeOnePwnobi,” Michael squinted as he read the username, “We don’t want you here! Take a hint!”

“Get out!” Gavin shouted at the screen, exasperated already and they hadn’t even started the game yet.

“I tried. No response yet,” Jack shook his head.

“Alright, we should back out…” Ryan started to a chorus of groans and protest.

“No! It’s gonna take forever to get everyone back in again,” Geoff said. “Just leave him. If he wants to be a jackass let him be a jackass. We can edit him out.”

“ _Or_ if he decides to try and shit on us, we _won’t,_ and he’ll pay for it later,” Gavin pointed out rather smugly.

“Alright?” Ryan double checked before going with all the nodding heads, “Alright… Everyone ready up.”

“Oop, I got a message from KobeOne,” Jack said while they were waiting on the load screen.

“Kobe!” Jeremy cried out, just in case they decided to leave it in.

Jack paused as he scanned it first, “Uh… that’s fucking creepy.”

“What’s it say?” Geoff asked, only half paying attention as he tapped, frustrated, at his phone.

“It says, _‘Can anyone spare a finger?’_ ”

“Riiiiight…” Ryan said slowly.

“Just ignore it,” Geoff repeated, putting down his phone finally and picking up his controller. “What are we doin’, Ryan?”

“Well Geoff-” Ryan started explaining the premise for what they had planned, but trailed off as a message popped up on screen.

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL]I know who I’m playing with. I’m not kidding about the finger.

The others read the message. Both Michael and Jeremy flipped off their webcams, before looking at each other and bursting out laughing.

Michael shrugged, recovering much more quickly than Jeremy, “he asked for a finger.”

“To be fair, he literally did,” Jeremy added.

They continued with the game, and didn’t once encounter the player in game. Just continued to receive the creepy, cryptic messages asking for a finger.

“Alright, I’m getting sick of this prick. How do we get rid of him?” Ryan demanded.

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL] I told you, Ryan. I want a finger. Just one finger. Not too much to ask.

“Ok, that was creepy,” Jeremy said, “Are we… we’re not like, accidentally streaming this or anything, right?”

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL] Ryan has lots of knives, right?

“This is so fucking weird; does he actually want us to cut off a finger?” Jack asked, “Yeah, no.”

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL] Aww, c’mon, you really wouldn’t trade a finger for a co-worker?

“What?” Gavin squawked, pushing away from his desk and standing up to look around. “Alright, who’s having a laugh?”

He went to the door to go check the support room – they were probably in hysterics by now – but the door wouldn’t budge.

He turned back to the group, “they’ve locked us in. They’re having a laugh.”

“Not fuckin’ funny Trevor! You know how busy today is for us!” Geoff yelled to the room and whoever was listening.

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL] Not Trevor.

“Whoever the fuck then, let us get on with it. I’m not kidding around.”

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL] No. A finger for a life. You have 3 minutes.

“What do you think they mean?” Gavin asked.

Ryan had gotten up at this point to try the door, throwing his weight behind it, but the door didn’t budge. He banged on it a few times, yelling out to anyone who might be nearby enough to hear, “Hey! Come check this door! We’re locked in!”

“Someone call security,” Jeremy suggested, Jack already getting his phone out.

“Got no reception. Like nothing at all.”

“Shit, me neither,” Geoff chimed in, “cut out right after lunch.”

The others all checked theirs and sure enough nothing either.

“Ok, this is freaky. What the fuck is going on?” Jeremy finally asked.

     KobeOnePwnobi [ALL] Social experiment. Phase one. Time’s up.

A loud bang – unmistakably a gunshot – rang out from the direction of the support room.

A message – a photo – popped up in Jack’s notifications. He clicked to open it, dreading what he might see.

His hand shot up to cover his mouth and he turned away. The others jumped up to see.

The photo was of Trevor’s body, hands bound behind his back, slumped forward with a gaping hole in the back of his head.

The caption read: _“All I wanted was a finger… Now phase 2 begins.”_

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> To be continued...


	29. Countdown

“Phase 2?”

All of their screens cut out an were replaced by a timer. It started at 10 minutes and immediately began counting down.

Text beneath it read:

_When the timer reaches 0, one of you must be dead._

They all fell silent as they took it in.

“Or what?” Geoff asked the room.

“Or _what_?” Jack parroted incredulously, “you saw what happened to Trevor! What if they’ve got the rest of the support team back there?”

“Or what if they come in here and blow us the fuck away?” Michael added.

“How are we supposed to know, though?”

More text appeared beneath the timer:

_Your food was laced with a slow-release poison. There is an antidote, which we will provide for you, but you must follow our instructions very carefully. Otherwise everyone will die._

“Everyone?” Geoff asked again.

There was no reply and no further information.

“What the fuck?” Jeremy reacted instinctively.

“Why? You said this was an experiment, what kind of experiment?” Gavin asked, hopeful for a response now they had proved they could interact in real time and perhaps keep them distracted a little longer. “Why _us_?”

Some of the text was deleted and replaced. The timer and original instruction remained as a reminder of their task.

_We know you. We’ve been watching you. We have all the data we could want._

A chill ran through the room and down everyone’s spines as they read the words in silence.

The words deleted themselves again, leaving only the persistent reminder and ticking clock of the countdown.

_07:38_

“So, what do we do here?” Jeremy asked nervously looking around, noticing Ryan eying the knife cup on his desk, more than two dozen knives in his collection all more than lethal enough to do the job.

Ryan looked up and caught him staring and shook his head a little, as if literally shaking himself out of the idea.

“I’m not killing anyone,” Geoff said assuredly. “ _We’re_ not killing anyone. They’re bluffing. This whole thing’s a setup.”

Jack looked worried, “but what if it’s _not_ , Geoff.”

Geoff grimaced but his resolve didn’t waver, “doesn’t matter.”

Michael’s eyes widened, “It definitely _does_ matter though… It matters a lot!”

Ryan was eying the knives again and this time Gavin followed his gaze. “Ryan! You couldn’t!”

“Ryan, don’t you fucking dare!” Geoff growled at him.

“What?” Ryan snapped defensively, “I didn’t do anything!”

Jack snatched the knife cup away from him and Ryan made a slight move to grab it back before letting it go, dropping his hands back by his sides.

“Fine, take it,” he huffed.

“It’s not that we don’t trust you-”

Michael cut Jack off mid-sentence, “It’s _absolutely_ that we don’t trust him.”

Jack looked hurt and Ryan looked like he was about to start arguing, but Jeremy had been watching the screen.

“Guys!” He directed their attention back to the screen at the new text that had appeared.

_In the packages, there is a small box with a :) sticker on it. In that box is a gun. It is loaded with one bullet. Use this to kill your nominated person and you’ll be let out and the antidote administered. Everyone else will go free._

The timer was at 5 minutes.

Ryan dashed for the parcels first, triggering everyone else to race for them, desperate to be the one to find the gun first. To know it wouldn’t be them to take one for the team.

Ryan started rifling through a pile of large brown boxes, the others digging through the smaller ones as per the message. Ryan moved quickly, desperate as if he knew what he was looking for and the others all hastened their own search in response.

Jeremy was the one to find it.

“Ryan,” he said calmly, flicking the safety off and taking aim in Ryan’s direction, “gonna need you to take a step back, buddy.”

The others were all wary, but Jeremy seemed confident in his movements and so long as the gun was trained on Ryan, it wasn’t a direct threat to them.

Ryan looked up slowly to see the situation that had unfolded. “Oh, you motherfuckers.”

The others refused to make eye contact.

“Step back Ryan,” Jeremy repeated.

“You cowards,” Ryan muttered, shaking his head and stepping back.

Looking past Jeremy to the screen, the timer read four minutes. Ryan knew there was still time.

“Jeremy,” Ryan began slowly, giving him a look that he desperately hoped conveyed _‘please trust me’_ , “I know what I’m doing. You have to let me do this. Trust me.”

“Don’t trust him…” Geoff warned, but it sounded hollow. Ryan played the cartoon villain; he always had. That didn’t make him one now.

“Please.”

Jeremy threw a glance to the timer. “You got three minutes. Don’t try anything.”

Geoff and Michael looked worried, Gavin and Jack looked more curious.

“I peeked at some of these the other day…” Ryan explained very quietly, his back to the webcams in case they were being watched, “…and I found something that might be useful for getting out of here.”

He found the box he was looking for, the tape already slashed, revealing the box inside. He just hoped it had been sent ready to use.


	30. Chainsaw

Ryan opened the box a little wider to reveal the chainsaw, assembled and what looked like ready to go …and remarkably dangerous to ship – _honestly, what was wrong with some of their fans?_ Not that Ryan was going to complain now. He caught a bit of the note that had come with it as he pulled it from the box:

_…challenge to a carving contest._

“Close enough,” he muttered under his breath.

He spun around with the chainsaw now in hand, holding it out defensively even though he hadn’t started it yet.

When the others saw what he had they backed up immediately, except for Jeremy who stood his ground.

“Ryan, don’t you fucking dare!” Geoff said, “I swore the day my wife took up chainsaw carving, I would _not_ die by fucking chainsaw.”

Another message popped up on the screen, Ryan only just saw it out of the corner of his eye.

_You must only kill with the gun provided or no one goes free._

Jeremy stepped forward with the pistol, “Ryan, drop it.”

“Nuh-uh,” Ryan shook his head, “ _you_ could drop the gun... No one has to _die_.”

“Ryan, you’re fucking crazy!” Michael practically yelled, “Drop the goddamn chainsaw!”

Ryan was clearly frustrated. He fumbled with the ripcord twice before getting a good grip on it, tugging it twice and hearing a dry engine stutter.

His heart skipped a beat.

“It’s got no fuel!” Gavin cried.

“Shit.”

“Drop it, Ryan.” Jeremy repeated more forcefully.

Ryan cringed, “Or what? You’re really gonna shoot me, Jeremy?”

Jeremy cocked the gun.

“If that’s what it takes, Ryan. Yes.”

Ryan pulled the ripcord again, but the chainsaw failed to start.

A shot fired, echoing through the room.

Ryan jumped. So did everyone else.

Jeremy looked around, confused.

“What the fuck was that?!” Jack stammered.

Jeremy lowered the gun, turning towards the screen, everyone following his gaze.

A new photo appeared.

_Alfredo._ They’d shot him between the eyes.

The caption read:

_This is your final warning._

Ryan threw down the chainsaw abruptly, making the others jump.

“Idiots!” Ryan yelled, “You’re all fucking morons! I told you to trust me! I’m trying to get us the fuck out of here!”

“What?!” Michael shouted, “how was going fucking crazy with a chainsaw helping, Ryan?!”

“I was gonna carve through the goddamn door, fuckwits!” Ryan snapped back.

Several of the others started yelling their own protests, but Ryan ignored them completely as he stormed past Jeremy, whose eyes were still fixed to the screen in shock, and went straight for the door. In a blind rage, he kicked it, splintering the lock at the doorframe and leaving it swinging on its hinges. It only took a good shove to get it fully open.

The others were floored, watching on, mouths agape, just staring as Ryan ripped through the door.

“Jeremy, the gun!”

Jeremy barely had time to comprehend as Ryan snatched the gun from him and made his way to the support room.

To his surprise, the door wasn’t locked, it was even ajar.

He hardly paid it any mind, pushing it open and charging in to put an end to the fucker responsible.

The whole team was there. As he entered, a barrage of blasts rang out, raining confetti and ribbons down on him.

He stopped in his tracks.

A banner hanging from the ceiling read: “Shenanigans!” and the staff all sang it out in unison.

Trevor and Alfredo were practically doubled over laughing in the middle of it. Not dead. Perfectly fine.

“I got you so good,” Alfredo said, a huge grin on his face.

Ryan saw red.

Cameras, phones and laughing faces surrounded him but they meant nothing.

His vision fixed on Alfredo. He still had the pistol. Jeremy had almost shot him with this fucking pistol. He’d almost run a chainsaw through his friends for this fucking stunt.

He launched himself at Alfredo, tackling him to the ground and holding the gun to his head.

“I hope it was worth it,” he snarled.


	31. The End

Ryan pulled the trigger.

Alfredo didn’t even flinch as the “click” of the dummy round sounded. In fact, he was still laughing.

“Oh my god, your reactions were priceless…”

Ryan was confused but immediately backed off Alfredo, shaking, unsure of what was going on.

Ryan still managed to offer a hand to help Alfredo to his feet. Part of him not sure why he was still alive and the rest of him too frozen in shock to do anything about it, just robotically going through the motions.

Ryan laughed weakly and managed a quiet, “you fucker…”

“Everyone in the support room was in on it,” Trevor grinned, “we had Alfredo rig everything up as part of the stream set-up, it was all his idea. Gotta hand it to him, he went big.”

“Who’s making a good video _now_ , Ryan?” Alfredo taunted.

Ryan masked his face and looked down at the gun in his hand, the cold realisation hitting him.

Alfredo laughed again and shook his head, “I knew you’d know the gun was fake as soon as you picked it up. That was fucking beautiful man.”

_Yeah…_ know _, right._

“What a fucking video!” Alfredo was still glowing as the others filed into the room cautiously, relief slowly taking the place of fear, eventually giving way to hysterical laughter.

In the midst of it, Jeremy quietly wandered over to him, looking up at him with a regretful expression, “I’m sorry, man…”

Ryan clapped him on the shoulder as if to say, ‘I understand’ and shook his head, before he turned and walked past him back into the hallway. Jeremy let him go.

He needed to breathe.

“Ryan! Ryan! Come back!” Alfredo called after him, following him out of the office, “It was a joke! It’s content!”

Geoff padded after him, “Alfredo’s right, it _is_ great content.”

“I know. You’re right,” Ryan nodded dumbly, “but I can’t… I just can’t. M’sorry.”

He pushed away from them and ran his hands through his hair a few times, then over his face.

Geoff looked worried as he motioned for Alfredo to go back into the office and moved cautiously closer to Ryan.

“Ryan…” Geoff started, keeping his voice low, “we don’t have to put it out. If it bothers you that much we can just sit on it. Maybe edit it, see how we go... If it doesn’t work out it never has to see the light of day.”

“I didn’t know the gun wasn’t real, Geoff,” Ryan blurted out as soon as he realised Alfredo was out of earshot.

Geoff narrowed his eyes, “excuse me?”

“I didn’t know it wasn’t loaded,” Ryan repeated, “I really tried to kill Alfredo, Geoff.”

Geoff stared blankly at him for a few seconds.

“I’m gonna pretend I didn’t hear that and I’m gonna say it again: we don’t have to put it out. Ever.”

Ryan let out a shaky breath. “Thank you, Geoff.”

“I’m gonna need you to fuckin’ promise me one thing though,” Geoff added.

Ryan raised an eyebrow but said nothing.

“ _Never again_.”

“Don’t need to tell me twice.”

Geoff grimaced and shook his head, “It’s a damn shame though… would’ve been a million-view video… at least.”

Ryan just shook his head. “I hate you all.”

**Notes for the Chapter:**

> _Shenanigans!_

**Works inspired by this one:**

  * [Skeleton](https://archiveofourown.org/works/12307956) by [Blue_Kat](https://archiveofourown.org/users/Blue_Kat/pseuds/Blue_Kat)




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